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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing tens of thousands of frontline homeland security employees today applauded a call from a key legislator for the grant of collective bargaining rights for employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) welcomed the letter to TSA Administrator John Pistole from Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

“Chairman Thompson recognizes, as do a great many of his colleagues, the importance of collective bargaining rights in the positive development of TSA,” President Kelley said. “His letter to Administrator Pistole underscores NTEU’s argument that the lack of such rights for TSA employees plays a key role in keeping the agency from reaching its potential as an instrument of national security.”

NTEU has been leading the effort to secure the right for TSA employees to bargain collectively, and is pressing the matter with Pistole. The agency head has said he has concluded his review of the issue and will make a decision sooner rather than later.

The Thompson letter cited another circumstance in which NTEU is a major factor—the unionization of the 24,000-employee Customs and Border Protection (CBP) workforce, where NTEU is the exclusive representative.

“I think we would be hard-pressed to find fault with the performance of individuals employed by (CBP),” the congressman wrote. “The presence of a union has not impeded the frontline employees of CBP from carrying out the agency’s mission,” adding that “the ability of these employees to engage with a union has not jeopardized the nation’s safety or been a source of conflict.”

NTEU, which won the right by a wide margin to be CBP employees’ exclusive representative in a 2006 election —the largest such election in federal sector history—is in the midst of an aggressive campaign for an upcoming representation election in TSA.

In recent weeks, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), which oversees federal sector labor-management relations, overturned its 2003 decision and ordered a representation election in TSA. The parties involved—NTEU, the FLRA, TSA and another union—will meet to establish the rules governing the remainder of the campaign, the election itself and related matters.

NTEU has stressed the importance of Pistole issuing a collective bargaining directive prior to such an election, so TSA employees can be clear about what they are voting for. No federal sector union representation election has ever been conducted where the proposed bargaining unit lacks the right to negotiate a contract.

Meanwhile, even in the absence of collective bargaining rights, NTEU—which represents thousands of Transportation Security Officers at airports across the country—is actively and effectively representing them in day-to-day workplace matters.

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