Home Media Center News Releases

In anticipation of tomorrow’s scheduled markup of a key bill that would help boost morale for a critical homelands security workforce, the leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has sent a letter to each member of the House Government and Oversight Reform Committee urging their support of collective bargaining rights and fair pay for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees.

NTEU has been demanding collective bargaining rights and fair pay for TSA employees since the agency’s inception in 2001. NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley wrote to the committee members urging them to approve H.R. 1881, the Transportation Workforce Security Enhancement Act of 2009, which would formally amend the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 to bring TSA employees under federal Title 5 protections, providing them with full collective bargaining rights and end PASS, the agency’s current pay system, moving employees to the General Schedule (GS) system.

“Fairness demands that they be given the same rights as other federal employees,” President Kelley said. “Providing these rights will lead to a more stable and independent professional workforce, which will be better able to ensure the safety of the traveling public.”

Thursday’s markup by the House Government and Oversight Reform Committee is the final step before H.R, 1881 is a ready for a vote before the full House. The House Homeland Security Committee approved the measure in July.

In congressional testimony and other forums, President Kelley has repeatedly pointed to full collective bargaining rights as key elements in the development of a stable, focused and professional workforce, while refuting opponents' claims that passage of H.R. 1881 would interfere with TSA operations.

“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 all the traveling public safer,” Kelley said. “Through collective bargaining, TSA employees can have a say in their working conditions and help make TSA the world’s most effective airport security agency.”

NTEU has also urged the Obama administration to grant TSA employees collective bargaining rights through an executive order or other administrative action. Such a recommendation was part of the union's presentation to the Obama transition team.

Not only is fair pay and civil service protections for TSOs a priority issue for NTEU, it also is a key component of NTEU’s comprehensive five-point plan for the TSA workforce—a concrete set of goals that will address key concerns of employees nationwide.

The plan not only calls for collective bargaining rights and an end to the current pay system, it also calls for full whistleblower protections by statute; a fair shift-scheduling system and adequate staffing; and revisions to the current TSA training and recertification system.

NTEU represents thousands of TSA employees at airports from Maine to California and is actively organizing at many more.

President Kelley has repeatedly emphasized that NTEU is uniquely qualified to represent TSA employees, given its long history of representing other frontline homeland security employees who work in our nation’s airports. NTEU represented U.S. Customs Service employees for more than 30 years and now is the exclusive representative of the 24,000-employee unit of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.