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.
Time Is Now for TSO Bargaining Rights
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Hundreds of workers braved the cold Washington, D.C., weather today to send a message to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA): Give transportation security officers (TSOs) who protect the flying public the opportunity to protect themselves with the right to bargain a union contract.
“Chanting Union Rights for TSOs,” members of dozens of unions rallied at AFL-CIO headquarters this morning. Speaking within earshot of the White House, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said:
“It is way past time for the Obama administration to give the TSOs their right to bargain collectively and hold their election so they can sit down at the table with management, start the negotiations and change their lives for the better.”
AFGE yesterday 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.
AFGE Files for TSA Election; Rally for Workers’ Rights Set for Tomorrow
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The 41,000 transportation security officers (TSO) at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are a step closer to winning the collective bargaining rights they have been denied since 2003.
Today, AFGE filed a petition with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) for an election to allow the TSOs to vote on union representation. More than 30 percent of the TSOs nationwide support the AFGE petition. In 2003, the Bush administration stripped the workers of collective bargaining rights. Says AFGE President John Gage:
We have always known that the choice to unionize and the task of winning collective bargaining rights for the TSA workforce would be a two-part process. While it would be ideal for a TSA administrator to have granted collective bargaining rights first, the two do not have to go hand-in-hand. By settling the question of representation first, AFGE will be ready to begin negotiations as soon as the bargaining rights are established.
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.
TSA Security Officers at Minn./St. Paul Airport Join AFGE
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Workday Minnesota editor Barb Kucera reports on the latest victory for transportation security officers (TSOs) who are fighting to win a union voice and collective bargaining rights at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). For more information on their campaign, visit AFGE’s TSA website here.
Transportation security officers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport have formed AFGE Local 899 while they await federal action enabling them to unionize.
Their organizing efforts got a boost from a solidarity event Monday with a national AFGE official, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and leaders of unions representing other airport and airline workers.
Be a Facebook Friend of TSA Workers
For more than eight years, the 40,000 uniformed officers at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have fought to win back the collective bargaining rights the Bush administration stole away from them.
You have the chance to join in their fight without even moving from your computer keyboard. AFGE member Lance Stewart, the creator of the Facebook page for TSA workers, just launched a drive to win 100,000 friends for the Transportation Security Officers (TSOs).
If a dog named Buddy can have a Facebook page with almost 125,000 members, I know we can also exceed 100,000 members in support of the TSO’s fight for justice….Let’s get the House of Labor behind this by having every labor supporter on Facebook join our page.
DeMint: If TSA Workers Join Union, They’ll Let Terrorists In
After the now infamous Christmas day “crotch bomber” episode on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) couldn’t keep his anti-union bile from bubbling out of his mouth.
DeMint, who has single-handedly bottled up the nomination of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), screeched that if TSA workers were allowed to unionize, terrorists clothed in plastic explosive-laden underwear or shoes or ball caps would begin blasting airplanes out of the sky on a regular basis.
BTW, the Obama administration supports the radical idea that TSA workers should be allowed to choose whether to join a union. Workers should have the choice, not officious senators.
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.
