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Monday, December 31, 2007 Collective bargaining on TSA workers' radar Some of the federal workers who screen your luggage and tell you
to take off your shoes at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport's security
gates now want the right to engage in collective bargaining. Two Washington-based unions, the National Treasury Employees
Union and the American Federation of Government Employees, have recently
established chapters in Atlanta to represent employees of the Transportation
Security Administration.
Currently, TSA screeners can belong to a union and have their
dues deducted from their pay but cannot participate in collective bargaining,
agency spokesman Jon Allen said. Some Georgia lawmakers want to keep it that way. "I have never supported TSA workers having the right to
strike because their service is essential to the safety and security of our
citizens," said U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). "I cannot support public safety employees having the right
to strike," Isakson said. "And in addition to the security concerns,
is the concern that a TSA strike would shut down aviation in this country." Union officials argue that federal workers cannot strike, even
if they are allowed to participate in collective bargaining, and they discount
arguments that airport security would be hurt by security workers being granted
more power. "It's a bogus fear and an excuse not to grant them
collective bargaining rights," said Treasury Employees Union President
Colleen Kelley. There were unsuccessful attempts this year to grant TSA workers collective-bargaining
rights, and Kelley said those efforts will intensify in the next few years. "If it doesn't happen in 2008, we are laying all the
groundwork to make it happen the year after the presidential election,"
she said. The issue has been a thorny one in Georgia, where it played a
key role in the 2002 U.S. Senate race between former Sen. Max Cleland, a
Democrat, and Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss. Cleland, like many of his Democratic counterparts, backed the
rights of Department of Homeland Security workers to unionize. Chambliss
opposed it. An underdog in the race, Chambliss defeated Cleland in the
heated, post-9/11 atmosphere of that election. Kelley said in a telephone interview that about 400 TSA workers
at Hartsfield-Jackson have signed up for her union. Hartsfield-Jackson Chapter
310 is the union's second TSA chapter; the other is at John F. Kennedy
International Airport in New York. The TSA in Atlanta has about 850 full-time employees out of a
total staff of about 950. Nationally, about 4,300 Transportation Security Officers out of
43,000 total have joined a union, TSA's Allen said. Kip Hawley, the man who runs TSA, told a U.S. Senate committee
earlier this year that granting his agency's workers collective-bargaining
rights could impair airport security. "Collective bargaining with a third party on behalf of our
TSOs would not provide the flexibility required to wage war against
terrorism," Hawley said. Any reduction in TSA's ability to shift resources or focus on a
specific airport based on new intelligence would diminish the agency's
effectiveness "and put the American public at greater risk," he said. Hawley said security workers already have "numerous
avenues" for resolving job disputes. He said they also have whistle-blower protections comparable to
those of other Homeland Security workers. Both unions have cited expanded
whistle-blower protection as one of their key goals for security officers. |
