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Austin, Texas—Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees at one of Texas’ busiest airports have joined thousands of others across the state and nationwide currently benefiting from strong workplace representation as the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) chartered its fourth TSA chapter in Texas today at the state’s capital city airport, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

NTEU represents thousands of other Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) nationwide and is actively organizing at other major airports in Texas and across the country. Currently, TSA employees do not have the right to collective bargaining.

“Securing full collective bargaining rights for TSOs and giving these dedicated employees a powerful voice in their everyday work lives is our top priority,” NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said. “These employees need the workplace representation that NTEU can provide. We are dedicated to bringing TSOs under the protection of civil service laws, so they can spend their time focusing on the important work of ensuring the safety of our nation’s airports and the traveling public.”

All NTEU TSA chapters operate with local staff attorneys and labor relations experts to represent TSOs on critical workplace issues, such as promotions, disciplinary actions, shift bidding and scheduling, overtime, performance appraisals, leave issues and alternative work schedules.

In February, President Kelley met with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano to discuss the urgent need for collective bargaining rights and other workplace improvements at TSA that would put people first—specifically, the employees and the public at large. Kelley discussed similar strategies in spring testimony before a hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight, as well as in a recent meeting with House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas).

NTEU’s congressional efforts paid big dividends this spring when Rep. Lowey introduced legislation—H.R. 1881, the Transportation Security Workforce Enhancement Act of 2009—that would end the agency’s PASS (Performance and Accountability Standards System) merit pay program and provide TSOs with full collective bargaining rights by statute. Reps. Thompson and Jackson Lee cosponsored the bill.

Civil service rights and moving TSA employees onto the General Schedule, like the bulk of federal employees, would give the agency’s rank-and-file workforce a substantial morale boost by putting in place workplace policies that are fair, transparent and understood by everyone, Kelley said.

“With the support of Congress and a new administration, we now have the opportunity to improve TSA in ways that benefit the workforce and the security of country itself,” said President Kelley. “This legislation opens the door to a huge opportunity to make TSA the best-run airport security agency in the world.” NTEU continues to also work with the Obama administration to secure collective bargaining rights through executive action.

Kelley added that NTEU is uniquely qualified to represent TSA employees given its long history of representing other federal employees who work in our nation’s airports and protect our security. NTEU has represented U.S. Customs Service employees for more than 30 years and is the exclusive representative of the 21,000-employee unit of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“TSOs in Austin, and across the country, need a strong, respected voice in the workplace to address recurring problems with pay, shift scheduling, unfair treatment and favoritism, as well as high attrition rates and on-the-job injuries,” President Kelley said.

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 ensure stability of the agency nationwide. The plan not only calls for collective bargaining rights and an end to PASS, 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.

As part of an ongoing organizing effort at TSA, Chapter 323 (TSA Austin) joins a NTEU network of 15 TSA chapters at 16 airports across Texas and Florida, as well as in New York, Atlanta, Orange County, Calif., Memphis, Tenn., Columbus, Ohio, St. Louis and in Philadelphia.

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