US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) It was announced on Friday Retirement of collective bargaining agreements with Transportation Security Agency (TSA) members cites the sustainability of low-performing workers and the sustainability of excess resources spent on union activities.
“Transportation security guards will no longer lose their hard-earned dollars to unions that don’t represent them,” DHS said in a statement. “This action will allow Americans to have a more effective and modernized workforce across the national transport network.”
Democrats and union officials say that by unilaterally cancelling the signed labor agreement, DHS violates TSA workers’ rights and endangers the efficiency of security screening at airports.
“This administration is undermining their rights. This means fewer police officers, longer screening lines at airports, and greater threats to public safety and national security,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D – Hawaii). Perennial legislation In an email statement to increase protection for TSA workers.
Everett Kelly, president of the United States Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), representing TSA Cleaners; The union said “We will not take a break until the basic dignity and rights of TSA workers are reaffirmed by the government.”
The frustration of the breach of TSA cleaners’ dignity and rights is a bit richer given how agency screeners treat the flying masses.
Nevertheless, the DHS lawsuit violates the obvious terms of the collective bargaining agreement signed by AFGE and TSA in May 2024. The contract is to last for seven years and specifies that it can only be partially renegotiated at the halfway point.
AFGE has already sued the Trump administration for many executive orders affecting the federal workforce. Union staff representing TSA cleaners I said Wall Street Journal The latest DHS actions are against the law.
The May 2024 collective bargaining agreement was a major victory for TSA union employees.
The new contract has “substantially expanded” Official timeTSA employees are paid by the government to do union-related work. DHS picked out the benefits in a press release Friday, noting that 200 TSA employees are working full-time on union issues.
The May 2024 contract was the latest in a long series of profits awarded to TSA workers during the Biden administration. Government in 2021 Give it to an agent employee Full collective bargaining rights. The 2023 Omnibus Funding Bill passed by Congress, 31% wage increase For TSA workers.
For the first half of that history, TSA workers were not unionized. It wasn’t until 2011 that the Obama administration granted union rights to institutional employees. First TSA Labor Contract It has been enforced Later in 2012.
The unionization of airport screeners has noticed fears about many early TSA critics that institutional security services will become “just another government employment program.” reason.
With increased wages and union protection, airport security becomes unnecessary expensive, and the process of eliminating bad employees is unnecessary tedious, he says reason. It is an inherent conflict of interest for the same agencies to regulate airport security and provide airport security services.
in reason“The recent issue of ‘abolizing everything’ claimed to have completely eliminated the agency.
As most of them serve ineffective security theatres, “TSA agents pack their bags in search of contraband and target travelers in an aggressive putdown of their genitals,” he writes. “Navigating these intrusive procedures often requires you to show up at the airport much earlier than would otherwise be necessary, creating inefficiencies for the airline and its customers.
Scribner suggests that a more modest reform program could involve leaving the TSA as a security regulator at the airport while contracting real services to private providers.
Such substantial reforms to the TSA could require more than a press release from DHS.
