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Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has called on a key federal agency to delineate the rights Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees would have if they vote for exclusive union representation but without collective bargaining rights.

“TSA employees need to know exactly what they are voting for,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “The prospect of exclusive representation without collective bargaining rights presents serious questions” that need to be addressed by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA).

NTEU’s position was stated in a filing with the FLRA in response to a Show Cause Order issued by its Washington Regional Director to NTEU and another union. The Regional Director questioned whether the petitions for a union election in TSA should be processed under current FLRA precedent. NTEU filed its petition on March 17 to ensure that if an election is ordered, TSA employees have a choice of which union will represent them.

The situation involving TSA employees is unusual, given that, in the federal sector, employees normally have the right to be represented by a union and bargain collectively prior to a union filing for a representation election.

“All of this could be made moot with the grant of collective bargaining rights to TSA employees,” the NTEU leader said. NTEU is strongly pursuing collective bargaining rights through administrative action and legislation on behalf of the TSA workforce. “TSA employees deserve collective bargaining rights,” Kelley said, “and granting them is the right thing to do.”

In his Show Cause Order, the FLRA regional director noted that a petition for a TSA election filed by the other union in 2003 was dismissed by the FLRA for lack of jurisdiction, The agency’s administrator, exercising his discretion under the law establishing TSA, issued a directive precluding collective bargaining rights at the agency. That 2-to-1 decision included a dissent by then-FLRA member Carol Waller Pope, who is now FLRA chair.

The Washington regional director will now make the decision on whether the FLRA has jurisdiction to conduct an election. It is likely that the regional director, following the precedent of that 2003 decision, will rule that the present petition is premature.

That decision would be appealed to the three-member FLRA, which would then have a chance to reconsider its 2003 decision.

The NTEU response to the regional director raised serious questions about which subsections of federal labor law would apply to TSA employees in the absence of collective bargaining rights, particularly representation rights and duties.

“Before balloting, answers to these fundamental questions are necessary for employees to cast informed votes,” the NTEU response said. “Therefore, should the (regional director) dismiss the election petitions and the FLRA grant an application for review of that dismissal, these issues should be resolved in the decision granting review.”

Meanwhile, NTEU continues its aggressive and highly-successful organizing campaign among TSA employees providing top-shelf, day-to-day representation to Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) at airports both large and small across the country. Already, there is a long list of NTEU representational victories dealing with such matters as certification, leave, scheduling and more.

Further, NTEU has a five-point plan to improve the work lives of TSOs, including not only collective bargaining rights, but an end to the current pay system; extension of full whistleblower rights by statute; a fair shift-scheduling system; adequate staffing; and revisions to the current TSA training and recertification system.

“TSA has not yet achieved the status intended by Congress when it created the agency—that of a world-class transportation protection agency,” President Kelley said. “Collective bargaining rights are crucial to accomplishing that very important goal for our nation.”

NTEU already is the exclusive representative for the 24,000-employee Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bargaining unit, which, like TSA, is a key component of the Department of Homeland Security. Employees of CBP and one of its predecessor agencies, the legacy U.S. Customs Service, have had collective bargaining rights for more than 35 years.

NTEU was certified as the sole representative for CBP employees in May, 2007, after a 2006 election in which it defeated the American Federation of Government Employees by more than a two-to-one margin.

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