by Mike Hall, Jan 11, 2007

After years of trying to bust federal workers’ unions and attacking all workers’ rights, the Bush administration says it “vigorously” opposes a provision in House-passed legislation that gives some 56,000 airport screeners at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) the right to join together in unions and bargain for wages and benefits.

The TSA workers’ rights were included as part of a broader bill to enact the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. The provision in that bill, passed Jan. 9 by the House on a 299–128 vote, would repeal a portion of the 2002 Aviation and Transportation Security Act that gave the Bush administration the authority to end collective bargaining rights for TSA workers.

In 2003, as TSA workers at several airports were readying to vote on joining AFGE, the Bush administration, citing so-called “national security” concerns, terminated the screeners’ collective bargaining rights.

In a statement yesterday, the White House Office of Management and Budget said:

The administration vigorously disagrees with these provisions of the bill.

The Bush administration has vigorously opposed workers and their unions—taking particular aim at federal workers—at just about every turn since it took office.

President Bush used the same national security argument in an effort to deny bargaining rights through new personnel rules to more than 700,000 Defense Department workers and 160,000 employees in the Department of Homeland Security. Federal courts have blocked the administration from implementing these rules.

Take a look at a partial rundown of Bush administration attacks on workers here. For a complete rundown, visit the AFL-CIO’s BushWatch.

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