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Pittsburgh—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) arranged for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Officers at Pittsburgh International Airport to meet with a key House lawmaker to discuss critical workplace issues and continuing efforts to grant collective bargaining rights to employees in dire need of an effective workplace voice. NTEU represents hundreds of federal employees in Pittsburgh with local chapters of the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) attended a meeting today with Pittsburgh TSA Officers who shared their experiences with ongoing scheduling issues at the airport. He also gave those in attendance a status update on H.R. 1881, legislation now pending in the House of Representatives that would bring full collective bargaining rights TSA employees by statute.

“TSA Officers are charged with protecting our country’s traveling public, but they have no real workplace voice. NTEU is working to give them that voice and to help TSA become the world-class transportation protection agency it was always meant to be,” NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said.

Kelley thanked Rep. Doyle for his strong support of TSA employee issues—he is a co-sponsor of H.R. 1881—and explained that it is critical for lawmakers to understand the TSA workforce’s daily struggle with a management style that imposes arbitrary rules and regulations, a performance system based on favoritism and a training program that is poorly implemented.

NTEU has taken its concerns to Congress, where it strongly supported the introduction of H.R. 1881, and where President Kelley last week sent a letter to Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, calling for TSA Officers to receive the right to bargain collectively in language to be included in an authorization bill the committee is currently drafting. An authorization bill is a measure that sets agency policy.

“It is long past time that TSA Officers enjoyed the same merit protections and pay system that are enjoyed by the majority of the federal workforce,” Kelley said. “The granting of collective bargaining at TSA is our number one priority.” On a parallel front, the union has repeatedly urged the Obama administration to grant collective bargaining at TSA through an administrative order.

Not only are fair pay and civil service protections at TSA priority issues for NTEU, they also are key components of NTEU’s comprehensive five-point plan for the TSA workforce—a concrete set of goals that will address concerns of employees nationwide. The plan also includes full whistleblower protections by statute; a fair shift-scheduling system and adequate staffing; and revisions to the current TSA training and recertification system.

The union also continues to press for permanent agency leadership. John S. Pistole—the Obama administration’s nominee to be the next TSA administrator—recently testified before both the Senate Commerce Committee and the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

President Kelley has called for Pistole’s quick approval by the full Senate. “TSA has an urgent need for strong, competent leadership that can address important workplace issues and can positively impact morale and attrition rates,” she said.

NTEU is engaged in an aggressive organizing campaign at TSA and already represents thousands of officers at airports nationwide, including hundreds at airports in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania localities.

NTEU—the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers—represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments. TSA is a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, where NTEU already is the exclusive representative for CBP’s 24,000-employee bargaining unit.