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Washington, D.C.—The attempted but failed Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner has refocused the attention of Americans on the critical role in national security played by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and its employees, and sharply underscores the need for permanent leadership in this important agency, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees said today.

“Even though TSA employees were not involved in this incident in any way, since the flight originated overseas,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), “this near-miss has thrust the issue of the security of air travel front and center once again.” She noted that President Obama himself termed the incident an intelligence failure.

Kelley added: “Clearly, TSA needs a permanent leader in place to deal with a variety of issues impacting the agency and its workforce. Again, I urge the Senate to act as soon as it reconvenes to confirm the nomination of Erroll Southers as administrator.” In the wake of two letters from President Kelley, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has promised action on the Southers nomination.

The critical issues impacting TSA employees include ensuring fair treatment in the workplace on such key matters as leave usage and scheduling; having a means to see that policies and procedures are applied uniformly across the air travel system; receiving appropriate training; having the same whistleblower protections afforded other federal employees; working under a transparent and fair pay system, with standards that are clear; establishing a way to guarantee that personnel decisions are based on merit and not on favoritism or cronyism; and more.

“Only by having a permanent administrator in place can TSA begin to address these and other issues that continue to adversely impact employee morale and agency performance,” Kelley said. NTEU represents thousands of TSA employees at airports, both large and small, across the country, and the union has an aggressive organizing campaign underway nationwide.

The NTEU president added: “Hard-working Transportation Security Officers (TSO) are dedicated to the effective performance of their mission, and their job needs to be treated with the same respect and importance as is attached to their agency’s security responsibilities. The two go hand-in-hand.”

“It is well past time we began providing TSA employees with the recognition and respect they earn and deserve by their dedicated service to our country,” said Kelley. “TSA employees earn these rights by their performance and commitment to duty. They are men and women who work around the clock, every day—including holidays—to help protect our nation and enforce our laws. I know from experience that, working through their union, TSA employees will use the full range of their workplace rights to advance both the mission of their agency and the security of our country.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including the entire 24,000 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) workforce. Like CBP, TSA is a unit of the Department of Homeland Security.