Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.— A key measure introduced in the House of Representatives today would amend the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 to bring Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees under federal civil service protections, scrapping a failed pay-for-performance personnel system and providing a crucial security workforce with collective bargaining rights for the first time. The leader of the union representing tens of thousands of frontline homeland security employees called the legislation a critical step toward improving the vital, yet troubled, agency.

“Moving TSA employees onto the General Schedule (GS) pay system and providing full civil service protections under Title 5 are two changes that will fundamentally improve TSA,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). “This legislation opens the door to a huge opportunity to make TSA the best-run airport security agency in the world.”

Eliminating TSA’s unfair PASS (Performance and Accountability Standards System) and moving employees onto the GS system, 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.

“Providing collective bargaining rights by statute would allow TSA employees to bring a united voice into the workplace and to have an avenue to share their thoughts and ideas on ways to strengthen and improve a number of workplace policies and practices,” said President Kelley.

For months, NTEU has worked closely with House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) to craft this critical piece of legislation. In February, President Kelley attended a meeting with the three legislators to discuss the urgent need for civil service protections in the TSA workforce, a theme she repeated during testimony last month before a hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight.

Kelley praised Reps. Thompson, Lowey and Jackson-Lee for their leadership on the measure, as well as for their stalwart support of TSA workplace issues. In March, the three lawmakers sent a letter to their congressional colleagues seeking support for granting collective bargaining rights to TSA employees.

“Providing Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) with Title 5 protections is an important step toward fair treatment and fair pay in the TSA workplace,” President Kelley said. “Given the crucial position of TSA employees in protecting our nation’s airports and securing the safety of the traveling public, putting them onto a true merit pay system and giving them a seat at the table will serve our country well.”

NTEU is also working with the Obama administration to secure collective bargaining rights through executive action. Under the law establishing the agency, the TSA administrator was given the power to decide whether or not employees should have collective bargaining rights; to date, no TSA administrator has seen fit to allow agency employees to have full collective bargaining rights.

Last month, President Kelley discussed the urgent need for collective bargaining rights with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Secretary Napolitano has ordered a review of the question of her authority to grant collective bargaining rights to TSA employees—a right NTEU believes she has and can delegate.

“I am very pleased that the legislation introduced today includes NTEU’s priorities of fair pay and civil service rules, as well as collective bargaining rights,” President Kelley.

Not only are 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.

“NTEU is committed to providing TSA employees with the first-class workplace representation they deserve,” said President Kelley. “NTEU has been approached by TSA employees from all over the country seeking assistance and support in dealing with workplace issues and we are proud to stand with them.”

The union represents thousands of TSA employees at several of the nation’s busiest airports and is actively organizing workers at many other airports across the country.

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