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Chicago— Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees at one of the nation’s signature airports have joined forces with the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU)—the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers. The establishment of a NTEU chapter at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) brings effective workplace representation to hundreds of local frontline homeland security employees.

NTEU already represents thousands of federal employees in the greater Chicago area with several local chapters at such agencies as Internal Revenue Service (IRS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as various financial regulatory agencies. Chapter 331 (TSA Chicago) will join their ranks.

“NTEU has been responding to the concerns of TSA employees across the country who are dedicated to carrying out the security mission of their agency but who have no voice in their workplace,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “NTEU already represents thousands of TSA employees at airports nationwide and is actively working to improve their workplace. Now, TSA employees here in Chicago will begin to see similar improvements.”

A leading factor in the low morale that has plagued TSA since its creation in 2001 is the lack of collective bargaining rights for its employees. “Getting collective bargaining will allow employees to have a say in their working conditions and will help make TSA the most effective airport security agency in the world,” President Kelley said.

NTEU has taken its concerns about the rights of the TSA workforce to Congress, where it helped draft the language of H.R. 1881, a measure now pending in the House that would provide TSA employees with full collective bargaining rights and move them onto the pay system that covers the majority of federal employees.

NTEU also anticipates the confirmation of Erroll G. Southers to be the next TSA Administrator. He already has won the approval of two key Senate committees to lead the agency and his nomination awaits only a full Senate vote. Once confirmed, President Kelley expects to have a productive working relationship with Southers on a variety of TSA issues—most importantly, NTEU’s call to grant TSA employees collective bargaining rights.

“TSA is an agency in need of a leader,” President Kelley said. “Its workforce struggles under arbitrary rules and regulations, a performance system that does not measure the work they do, a pay system plagued by cronyism and obfuscation, and a training program that is ill-funded.”

The current TSA pay system is a second factor affecting the agency’s low morale, President Kelley said, as employees believe the agency’s current pay system does not accurately record and value the work employees do and is highly subjective to the whims of management.

Not only is fair pay and civil service protections for TSA employees priority issues for NTEU, they also are key components of NTEU’s comprehensive five-point plan for the TSA workforce—a concrete set of goals that will address concerns of employees nationwide. The plan 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.

Chapter 331 joins a growing NTEU network of two dozen TSA chapters at more than three dozen airports from Maine to California, including new chapters in Louisiana and Washington, D.C.

All NTEU TSA chapters operate with local staff attorneys and labor relations experts to represent employees on a variety of critical workplace issues, such disciplinary actions and leave issues.

NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments and is aggressively organizing thousands of TSA employees at airports nationwide. TSA is a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, where NTEU already is the exclusive representative for CBP’s 24,000-member bargaining unit.