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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing tens of thousands of front-line homeland security employees today welcomed news that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered a review of the question of extending collective bargaining rights to employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

“I look forward to a prompt and favorable decision on this question, and implementation of full collective bargaining rights for these employees who very much need and deserve such rights,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

As part of an ongoing organizing effort in TSA, NTEU already represents more than 2,000 Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) at eight of the nation’s largest airports and is actively organizing at dozens more airports around the country.

In response to a question during a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee this morning, Secretary Napolitano said she has asked the DHS general counsel to review whether she has the authority to grant collective bargaining rights to TSA employees. NTEU believes the law is clear that the DHS secretary or her designee has the authority and previously provided this information to the new administration.

As part of its recommendations to the then-incoming Obama administration, NTEU emphasized the importance of providing TSA employees with collective bargaining rights and moving them to the same pay system most other federal employees are covered under, which would stem the dangerously-high turnover and low morale in this crucial security agency.

“President Obama has indicated his support of collective bargaining rights for TSA employees and I would hope and expect that would happen in the very near future,” said Kelley, noting that she looks forward to discussing the issue in more detail with Secretary Napolitano over the next few days.

The DHS secretary will be speaking at the union’s annual Vigil of Lights honoring Customs and Border Protection Officers who have died in the line of duty. The Vigil, part of NTEU’s annual Legislative Conference, will begin at 6 p.m., Tuesday, March 3, at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, on E Street, between 4th and 5th Streets NW, in downtown Washington. Representatives from several NTEU TSA chapters will be attending the NTEU conference.

President Kelley emphasized the important role full collective bargaining rights would play in providing TSOs with a meaningful voice in their work lives. “As things now stand,” she said, “every day is a struggle for these vital front-line security employees who work under an unfair pay system, face arbitrary management decision-making, deal with a lack of training and promotional opportunities, and confront other issues.”

Under the law establishing the agency, the TSA administrator was given the power to decide whether or not employees should have collective bargaining rights; to date, no TSA administrator has seen fit to allow agency employees to have full collective bargaining rights, although NTEU does represent them for a wide range of purposes.

It is, she said, “no wonder that employee morale in TSA is at rock-bottom and turnover is among the highest in government.” Collective bargaining, President Kelley said, “will provide TSA employees with a meaningful seat at the table where decisions impacting their day-to-day work lives are made.”

And that, she added, “will serve our county well,” since high turnover rates in such a sensitive position as screening airline passengers create “unacceptable risks” in the air travel system.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.