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Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today renewed its call for the administration to grant collective bargaining rights to employees of the beleaguered Transportation Security Administration (TSA), but said it is ready to file for a TSA union election should the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) grant an election petition filed by another union.

“Should the FLRA determine that this petition is valid, NTEU is ready to compete for and win a union election in TSA,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “However, we question the timing of pursuing exclusive representative status without the existence of collective bargaining rights. More specifically, we question how having an exclusive representative, without collective bargaining, will bring about real, meaningful improvements to TSOs’ work lives.”

“A much better alternative is for the administration to immediately grant collective bargaining rights to the TSA workforce so when employees choose their exclusive representative, the union has authority to bargain a contract,” said Kelley.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) today said it will file for a union election at TSA, despite the lack of collective bargaining rights at the agency. A similar petition filed by AFGE in 2003 failed. It is possible that the FLRA would change its position, the NTEU leader said.

“While we question the wisdom of this action absent an obligation to bargain, we understand the frustration that motivates it,” said Kelley. “It has taken far too long for these employees to gain the basic workplace rights they deserve.”

“NTEU is prepared to fight for and win a union election should the Authority grant this petition,” said Kelley. “Employees will have a choice about who their exclusive representative is and we are prepared to make the case that we are the better choice.”

“It would be a far better scenario for employees if the administration would grant them collective bargaining rights. It is unclear what an exclusive representative would mean under this structure,” Kelley said.

She added: “Collective bargaining is by far the best way to provide a meaningful voice for employees in their workplace. At TSA, it will help foster a trained, committed workforce, and address workplace issues that have hurt TSA from its earliest days and we will continue to make that our priority.”

Collective bargaining in TSA would impact a wide range of vital workplace matters, including the need for an effective grievance process using neutral arbitrators; establishment of a fair and transparent mechanism for employee performance awards; addressing training and scheduling issues—both of which are major concerns at TSA; and other issues of importance to both the workforce and their agency.

TSA is a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, where NTEU already is the exclusive representative for the 24,000-member U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bargaining unit.

A union representation election will be conducted under the direction of the FLRA. That body oversees federal sector labor relations. To date, the 2006 FLRA-run election covering the CBP bargaining unit, which NTEU won by a margin of more than two to one, has been the largest representation election in federal sector history. The TSA workforce numbers approximately 40,000.

NTEU is aggressively organizing TSA employees at airports across the country. It already represents thousands of them in about 40 airports nationwide.

NTEU continues to press for the grant of collective bargaining rights through administration action or the approval of pending legislation that would codify the right of TSA employees to bargain collectively.

Along with the grant of collective bargaining rights, NTEU is moving on multiple fronts on the other elements of its five-point program for TSA employees. These include:

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Elimination of the Performance and Accountability Standards System (PASS), under which TSA pay raises are based on favoritism and cronyism, rather than merit—and the transfer of agency employees to a transparent and accountable system like the General Schedule (GS) pay system;

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Pursuit of a fair scheduling system. Insufficient staffing, due in part to high turnover, creates a number of significant issues at TSA, including split shifts during which employees must spend up to four hours of unpaid time at their airport, and injuries related to fatigue;

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Improvements in the training and certification program. NTEU’s work already has led to positive changes in these important areas, but more remains to be done, including addressing the fact that failures due to flawed tests were made part of employee records; and

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The extension to TSA employees of full whistleblower rights. This is an especially important matter not only for employees, but for the traveling public as well. The safety of air travel could well depend on the ability of a TSA employee to raise a security or other serious issue without fear of management retaliation.

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