Newsstand - TSA Union Urges Congress to Restore TSA Collective Bargaining Rights

www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-08-2007/0004501891&EDATE=

ouse to Vote on 9/11 Commission Bill Tuesday

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the only union
representing the Transportation Security Administration, the American
Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) urges Congress to grant
Transportation Security Administration officers (TSOs) collective
bargaining and appeal rights. Since TSA's inception, AFGE has lobbied
Congress on this issue.
The House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the 9/11 Commission Bill,
which includes repeal of a footnote of the Aviation and Transportation
Security Act (ATSA), which called for all TSA employees to have the same
basic labor protections of other federal workers. However, a footnote in
the ATSA allowed for the TSA Administrator to "employ, appoint, discipline,
terminate...[and] establish levels of compensation and other benefits" for
TSOs.
"By repealing the ATSA footnote, Congress has ensured that TSA will no
longer be allowed to deny its workers basic labor rights," AFGE National
President John Gage said. "TSA has subjected its employees to
discrimination, retaliation, adverse actions, mandatory overtime, and fear
of coming forth to report problems. It's time to put an end to TSA's
bullying.
"TSA has the highest injury and attrition rates in the federal
government," Gage added. "The new legislation will help improve security by
stabilizing the workforce and improving morale."
Although TSOs are deprived of a collective bargaining agreement, AFGE
represents these employees before the Disciplinary Review Board, EEOC,
courts, in Congress and in the media. AFGE National President John Gage
said.
"AFGE is proud to be the TSA union," Gage said. "We have fought on
behalf of the TSOs since the agency's inception and won't stop now."
AFGE recently took TSA to the International Labor Organization, which
ruled that the agency violated the rights of TSOs by denying them the right
to organize and bargain collectively. AFGE now calls for Congress to
restore to TSOs the full scope of collective bargaining.
"Now is the time for change," Gage said. "These employees deserve the
right to work without consequence. They deserve to be treated the same as
other DHS employees. They deserve equality. And it's up to Congress to give
it to them."
AFGE is the largest federal employee union representing 600,000 workers
in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia,
including the largest constituency of DHS employees comprising Customs &
Border Protection, Border Patrol, Citizenship and Immigration Services,
Immigration & Customs Enforcement, and Federal Law Enforcement Training
Center officers; FEMA workers; TSA officers; and civilian U.S. Coast Guard
employees.


SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees

Related links:
www.afge.org

Hopefully Congress will choose to destroy the TSA instead, as it's a worthless, expensive disgrace of an agency. :td:

Hopefully Congress will choose to destroy the TSA instead, as it's a worthless, expensive disgrace of an agency. :td:

Ditto...


President John Gage said. "TSA has subjected its employees to discrimination, retaliation, adverse actions, mandatory overtime, and fear of coming forth to report problems. It's time to put an end to TSA's bullying.


How about the TSA's discrimination of passengers?

Retaliation and adverse actions taken against passengers who do speak up?

Use of bullying tactics to put fear into passengers from speaking up when they do have a problem?

Yes, it is time to put an end to the bullying of passengers by the TSA.

There is no accountability with the TSA and the actions of it's employees. Now the bad apples will be able to hide behind a union, what a fantastic idea. :rolleyes:

Disband this expensive, unamerican disgusting agency.

I'm for this union -- perhaps that'll introduce proactiveness and accountability. Sometimes the TSA screeners' treatments of passengers reflect the way they're being treated.

That being said, I kind of agree with the top two posters but with TSA being an umbrella authority, which oversees an airport screening authority, which would use private or municipal (like in courts) screeners.

- Pat

I'm for this union -- perhaps that'll introduce proactiveness and accountability.

:D Unions have many qualities. Individual accountability and proactivity are not two of those qualities.

Non-union screener (hopefully private) is caught stealing/abusing passegers: fired on the spot.

Union screener is caught stealing/abusing passengers: gets several warnings, retrainings, union greviences filed, "union management" steps in, etc, etc, etc.

Since the passengers have no direct redress against screeners who abuse their authoritah to steal or harass, the next best thing is immediate accountability, preferrably while the affected party is still present. Perhaps some truly memorable and humiliating firings would get some of the poorer TSA employees into line before the entire agency is privatized once again.

:D Unions have many qualities. Individual accountability and proactivity are not two of those qualities.

:-: More of group accountability and pro-activity in the meantime. Dealing with unions where I work, the mechanics and engineers are free to voice their opinions about general safety issues or concerns without reprisal. In my workplace, mechanics and engineers don't come in contact with the "customers", unlike the TSA -- so you do have a point.

But come to think of it, with my idea of TSA being an overseer, perhaps then a union wouldn't be relevant in the end, since all that would be left would be FSDs, LEOs, and GSCs -- of course, I think they're technically exempted workers. :)

Since the passengers have no direct redress against screeners who abuse their authoritah to steal or harass, the next best thing is immediate accountability, preferrably while the affected party is still present. Perhaps some truly memorable and humiliating firings would get some of the poorer TSA employees into line before the entire agency is privatized once again.

I'm pro-TSA but making the agency a skeleton. Shutting down a government agency isn't possible and of course would bruise some egos. :rolleyes: The next best thing is to fire all the "OFFICERS" (:rolleyes:), make them private SCREENERS. I still can't believe people with criminal backgrounds made it on to the federal government payroll back in 2002. :mad:

These cutesy TSA logos all around the airport and on the screeners' uniforms are absurd. There no such propoganda in federal government buildings or courtrooms. Those screeners just do their job . . . sometimes courteously sometimes not . . . but they're never on a power trip.

In the event I'm being harassed at checkpoint, I'm prepared to:
(1) Act professionally; stare the screener down to show I mean business.
(2) Immediately demand a supervisor and witnesses.
(3) Call for a police officer.
(4) File charges.

I told my mother the same thing. Back in the days of TSA groping, I told her to feel free file a sexual harassment complaint any time she felt threatened AND to call a police officer. (That usually shuts TSA up quite quickly.)

Some passengers need to be more educated about standing up to TSA bullies the right way.

- Pat