"At KCI, tension mounts over security screening union"

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

At KCI, tension mounts over union
The Kansas City (MO) Star


Hourly employees of the private security firm at Kansas City International
Airport participated in a union election last week, but the results remain
unknown. The employer and union continue to battle over legal issues.

Central to the dispute is whether more than 500 security screeners for
FirstLine Transportation Security Inc. are eligible to engage in collective
bargaining. FirstLine has a contract with the Transportation Security
Administration to handle baggage screening at KCI, one of five airports
nationwide that uses private screeners.

The Overland Park regional office of the National Labor Relations Board
ruled that it had jurisdiction to hold the election, said Dan Hubbel,
assistant to the NLRB regional director. Employees voted over three days
last week on whether they wanted to join the International Union, Security,
Police and Fire Professionals of America, or SPFPA.

However, FirstLine appealed the ruling to the NLRB in Washington, which has
yet to consider the matter. Therefore, the votes of the FirstLine employees
have been impounded until a decision is made by the Washington board.

FirstLine contends that the employees cannot engage in collective bargaining
because the federal screeners of the Transportation Security Administration
cannot do so due to national security concerns. In January 2003, the federal
Department of Transportation made the determination that TSA airport
screeners are not entitled to join a union.

FirstLine employees "essentially perform the same function using the same
equipment and are acting under the direction and control of the TSA," said
Steve Schuster, a Kansas City attorney representing FirstLine. "If the TSA
says that its employees should not engage in collective bargaining, that
same rationale and public policy should apply to the private sector as
well."

A union official said private-sector employees are not subject to the
Homeland Security Act's prohibitions regarding union-organizing.

"We believe this is just a stall tactic to take away the rights of the
screener," said Steve Maritas, an SPFPA International organizer. "We
prevailed in the first process of the NLRB, and we believe we'll win the
appeal, also."

The Transportation Security Administration was created and took over the
role of security screening at airports following the September 2001
terrorist attacks. In 2002, five airports were allowed to contract out the
security services: KCI, San Francisco International Airport, Greater
Rochester (N.Y.) International Airport, Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Airport and
Tupelo (Miss.) Regional Airport.

In April 2004, a study commissioned by the Transportation Security
Administration showed that FirstLine's operations at KCI generally
outperformed the federal screeners at other airports. Late last year,
FirstLine had its contract extended one year to continue its screening
services on behalf of the federal government at KCI.

Other airport operators around the country are now looking into hiring
private screening firms. Those decisions could be affected by the outcome of
the legal battle in Kansas City, Schuster said.

"This has national implications, quite frankly," he said.

Maritas said the SPFPA got involved in the FirstLine campaign last December,
after the NLRB ruled that the screeners were considered guards and could not
be organized by two other unions that had tried in the past, the Machinists
and United Steelworkers.

"They want to join the union because of safety issues and respect," he said.
"People are lifting heavy bags and getting injured. Then they are poorly
treated by the company."

Maritas said his union also believes that FirstLine employees have been
underpaid under prevailing wage laws. Under these wage rules, guards are
paid $16.67 an hour in the Kansas City region, and Maritas said FirstLine
has a two-tiered wage system that pays some people $15 an hour and others
$13 an hour.

Schuster said federal guidelines set the minimum wages and benefits that are
paid to private employees of firms that contract with the Transportation
Security Administration, but he was unfamiliar with specific allocations
made by FirstLine.


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