XPost: alt.homeland.security.alerts, alt.government.employees, alt.society.labor-unions
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tsa-homeland-security-collective-bargaining- agreement-union/?intcid=CNR-02-0623

The Department of Homeland Security said Friday it is ending the
collective bargaining agreement with the union representing thousands of frontline workers with the Transportation Security Administration, a
decision the TSA union called an "unprovoked attack."

In announcing the decision, DHS criticized the union — which represents
worker responsible for screening airline passengers — claiming TSA employs
more people working full-time on union issues than those "performing
screening functions at 86% of our airports."

"This action will ensure Americans will have more effective and modernized workforces across the nation's transportation networks," Homeland Security
said in a statement. "TSA is renewing its commitment to providing a quick
and secure travel process for Americans."

The decision to end collective bargaining was criticized by the
Association of Flight Attendants, a union representing flight attendants,
and Democratic lawmakers, with both claiming that the action will make
flying less safe. DHS's decision comes after the agency last year pushed
to boost TSA workers' pay, which has historically lagged that of other government employees.

In May 2024, the TSA administrator at the time, David Pekoske, signed the collective bargaining agreement and credited pay increases that went into effect in 2023 for helping to improve employee retention and morale, areas where TSA has had challenges.

"Attempting to negate [TSA workers'] legally binding collective bargaining agreement now makes zero sense – it will only reduce morale and hamper the workforce," said Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi and ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security, in a statement on
Friday.

In the announcement, DHS said poor performers were being allowed to stay
on the job and that the agreement was hindering the ability of the
organization "to safeguard our transportation systems and keep Americans
safe" — an assessment that faced immediate pushback from Thompson and the union.

The decision is "terrible for aviation security and everyone who depends
on safe travel," the Association of Flight Attendants said. The group
added, "This will take us back to the days of security at the lowest price
with the highest costs for our country."

Impact on 47,000 TSA workers
The American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing
the TSA workers, said in a statement that the order would strip collective bargaining rights from roughly 47,000 transportation security officers, or TSOs. Those are people responsible for staffing airports around the
country and checking to make sure that hundreds of thousands of passengers
a day do not carry any weapons or explosives into the secure areas of
airports.

The union said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and President
Donald Trump's administration were violating the right of staffers to join
a union. It also said that the reasons the Republican administration had
given for the decision — specifically the criticisms of union activity —
were "completely fabricated."

Instead, the union said, the decision was retaliation for its wider
efforts challenging a range of decisions taken by the Trump administration
that have affected federal workers.

AFGE represents roughly 800,000 federal government workers in Washington,
D.C., and across the country, and it has been pushing back on many of the administration's actions such as firing probationary employees and cuts to
the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

"Our union has been out in front challenging this administration's
unlawful actions targeting federal workers, both in the legal courts and
in the court of public opinion," the union said. "Now our TSA officers are paying the price with this clearly retaliatory action."

The decision to end the collective bargaining agreement comes after
Trump's administration pushed out Pekoske the day Trump was sworn into
office. The TSA does not currently have an administrator or a deputy administrator.

In a note to staff, acting TSA Administrator Adam Stahl said Noem made the decision to rescind officers' collective bargaining rights to align with
the Trump administration's "vision of maximizing government productivity
and efficiency and ensuring that our workforce can respond swiftly and effectively to evolving threats."

"By removing the constraints of collective bargaining, TSOs will be able
to operate with greater flexibility and responsiveness, ensuring the
highest level of security and efficiency in protecting the American
public," Stahl wrote. "This determination is made with the TSO in mind, ensuring employee inclusivity and restoring meritocracy to the workforce."

Stahl said the agency "will establish alternative procedures" to address employee concerns and grievances "in a fair and transparent manner."

"Anti-union talking points"
Rep. Thompson criticized the Homeland Security press release, saying the department was using "flat out wrong anti-union talking points." He said
the real aim was "diminishing" the workforce so "they can transform it in
the mold of Project 2025."

"Attempting to negate their legally binding collective bargaining
agreement now makes zero sense — it will only reduce morale and hamper the workforce," Thompson said. "Since the Biden Administration provided pay increases and a new collective bargaining contract to the workforce, TSA's attrition rates have plummeted."

Project 2025 was the conservative governing blueprint that Trump insisted during the 2024 campaign was not part of his agenda. Project 2025 calls
for immediately ending the TSA union and eventually privatizing the entire agency.

The TSA was created after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers smuggled knives and box cutters through security to use as
weapons as they commandeered four airplanes and slammed them into the
Pentagon, the World Trade Center towers and a Pennsylvania field. The
TSA's mandate when it was created in November 2001 was to prevent a
similar attack in the future.

Air travel since then has undergone a massive overhaul, with passengers
and their luggage going through extensive screening at the airport and passenger information generally uploaded to TSA in advance of travel to facilitate screening. Increasingly, the agency has also been using facial recognition technology to scan passengers at checkpoints, leading to
criticism by some members of Congress.


--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
eradicated.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

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