AFGE’s TSO Election Petition Moving Quickly
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Even though the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has not been confirmed, AFGE is moving ahead quickly with its plans, seeking an election so transportation security officers (TSOs) can join a union.
On Feb. 22, AFGE filed a petition with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) for an election to allow the 41,000 TSOs to vote on union representation. In 2003, the Bush administration stripped the workers of collective bargaining rights. The FLRA is moving the petition through its election process quicker than usual, AFGE President John Gage said on the “Inside Government” radio show.
Under law, the TSA administrator will decide if workers can have bargaining rights. The workers would then choose a union to represent them. President Obama this week nominated Maj. Gen. Robert Harding as TSA administrator. The previous nominee, Erroll Southers, withdrew after his nomination was held hostage by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) because DeMint opposes allowing TSA workers the freedom to form a union.
Oakland Rally Backs Bargaining Rights for Transportation Workers
Steve Stallone, International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) president and secretary/treasurer of the California Media Workers Guild, joined activists rallying today at Oakland’s airport.
Some 100 labor activists and supporters stirred up the normal bustle of Oakland International Airport on a Friday before a three-day weekend, rallying in support of Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) who work there and at airports around the country. They were decked in their union colors, displaying the breadth of support for the TSOs in the union movement.
Some 13,000 TSOs have joined AFGE and are still trying to get collective bargaining rights, AFGE organizer Joe Diggs told the crowd.
TSA Nominee Southers Withdraws, Citing ‘Partisan Climate’ That Risks U.S. Security
Erroll Southers, the choice of President Obama to head the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and whose nomination was held hostage by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) because DeMint opposes allowing TSA workers the freedom to form a union, withdrew his name from consideration today.
During the 2008 campaign, Obama pledged to make bargaining rights for TSA workers a priority. In 2003, President George W. Bush took bargaining rights away from transportation security officers (TSOs) and other workers at the TSA in one of the first shots in his war on America’s workers.
DeMint has even made the ludicrous claim that if TSOs were allowed to unionize, national security would be put at risk and terrorist attacks on the United States could increase.
Workers Mobilizing to Get Bargaining Rights for Transportation Security Officers
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More than 120 workers from nine unions braved cold weather in Phoenix yesterday to rally and show solidarity with Transportation Security Agency (TSA) workers who are seeking a union.
The Phoenix rally shows workers across the country are standing strongly behind the employees who protect the flying public. Over the next few weeks, the AFL-CIO and affiliated unions are mobilizing to draw attention to the plight of these workers and the unfair ways they are being treated.
Even though federal border guards, immigration and customs and Federal Protective Service employees are already union members, TSA employees still do not have collective bargaining rights.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler stopped by National Airport near Washington, D.C., yesterday to talk with TSA workers about their concerns. Workers there and at airports across the country are concerned about pay levels, high staff attrition, low morale and severe rates of workplace injuries.
Bargaining Rights for Airport Screeners Would Help Security
Granting collective bargaining rights to airport screeners and other Transportation Security Agency (TSA) employees would enhance national security, union leaders and Obama administration officials said this week.
Federal border guards, immigration and customs and Federal Protective Service employees are already union members. In an interview with CNN last night, AFGE President John Gage pointed out that union members routinely protect the national security:
No one talked about union when the cops and fire fighters went up the stairs on 9/11 at the World Trade Towers. No one talks about our two members who took down the shooter at Fort Hood. There was nothing in their union membership that stopped them from doing their duties.
