ALEXANDRIA, Va.-National Transportation Employees Union President Colleen Kelley said that her group has been unable to schedule a vote on establishing a union at NCUA because agency officials are questioning the validity of some of the participants in the petition. NTEU needs 30% of eligible employees to sign a petition to hold a vote on whether to unionize, Kelley said. According to her, they got 40% at NCUA. However, NCUA officials are challenging 480 employees'-mostly field examiners-participation in the petition on the grounds that they are management positions, according to Kelley, which NCUA Executive Director Len Skiles confirmed. Management is ineligible to become part of the bargaining unit. Kelley added that employees in similar positions at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have been counted as eligible in the past. A hearing before the Federal Labor Relations Authority is scheduled for June 30 to determine the petitioners' eligibility. Skiles said that there is a cost to the agency, but that he could not quantify it. Kelley projected that it would be September before a vote on the union could be held.