One Of The Most Criticized Bureaucracies In The US Government
Is Looking For "Protection"
According to a release by the union representing a number of
TSA staffers, nationwide, TSA workers need special protection. In
continuing a push to bring TSA employees under federal civil
service protections, the leader of the union representing thousands
of TSA Officers (TSOs) sent a letter to members of the House of
Representatives urging them to cosponsor a key measure that would
provide TSOs with collective bargaining rights for the first
time.
H.R. 1881 would formally amend the 2001 law that created TSA to
provide TSOs with civil service protections under Title 5,
including collective bargaining rights, and would move them onto
the General Schedule (GS), putting the brakes on the agency's
current failed pay-for-performance personnel system.
"TSA employees labor under a system that has almost completely
demoralized them," President Colleen M. Kelley of the National
Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said. "We can strengthen TSA by
providing its workers with a pay and performance system that is
fair, credible and transparent, and with a voice in the development
of workplace quality standards that will make the traveling public
even safer."
NTEU's efforts, following today's letter, will begin with the
nearly 200 members of the House who have cosponsored previous
legislation that included collective bargaining provisions for
TSOs.
Eliminating TSA's 'unfair' PASS (Performance and Accountability
Standards System) and providing collective bargaining rights by
statute would allow TSA employees to have a united workplace voice
as well as an avenue to share their thoughts and ideas on ways to
develop and improve workplace policies and practices, Kelley
said.
President Kelley is reportedly working closely with a number of
Democrats, including Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), House Homeland
Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), and Rep. Sheila
Jackson Lee (D-Texas) to craft H.R 1881. Last month, the three
lawmakers also sent a letter to their congressional colleagues
urging their support for collective bargaining rights at TSA.
Calling the measure "fundamental to improving TSA," Kelley said
H.R. 1881 will help ensure that TSA becomes "the best-run airport
security agency in the world."
In addition to seeking support for H.R. 1881, NTEU continues to
work with the Obama administration to secure collective bargaining
rights through executive action. The TSA administrator was given
the power to decide whether or not employees should have collective
bargaining rights under the law establishing the agency; to date,
no TSA administrator has seen fit to allow agency employees to have
full collective bargaining rights.
Kelley claims that TSOs are among the few federal employees
without federal civil service protections. "Providing them with
collective bargaining rights would give TSOs a renewed stake in the
success of airport security nationwide and would allow them to
partner with management in fulfilling the agency's overall
mission." NTEU is the largest independent federal union,
representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.