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Portland, Ore.—Transportation Security Administration Officers (TSOs) at several Oregon airports, including Portland International Airport (PDX), have joined forces with the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU)—the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers. The establishment of an NTEU TSA chapter in Oregon brings effective workplace representation to frontline homeland security employees statewide.

NTEU already represents hundreds of federal employees in Oregon with local chapters of the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Today, TSOs at NTEU Chapter 333 (TSA Oregon) will join their ranks. In addition to PDX, Chapter 333 will represent officers at airports in Eugene, Bend, North Bend, Klamath Falls, Medford and Rogue Valley.

“NTEU has been responding to the concerns of TSOs nationwide who have no workplace voice, but who are dedicated to their agency’s mission,” NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said. “NTEU has been actively working to improve the work lives of tens of thousands of TSOs at dozens of airports from Maine to California. Now, officers in Oregon will see similar improvements.”

A critical factor in the low morale that has plagued TSA since its creation in 2001 is the lack of collective bargaining rights for TSOs. “The agency’s workforce continues to struggle under arbitrary rules and regulations, a performance system that does not measure their work and a training program that is ill-funded,” President Kelley said. “Collective bargaining at TSA will allow officers to have a say in their working conditions.”

The current TSA pay system is another key factor impacting the agency’s low morale, Kelley added, as officers believe it is subject to management whims and does not accurately reflect the value of the work they perform.

NTEU has taken its concerns to Congress, where it helped draft the language of H.R. 1881, a measure in the U.S. House of Representatives that would provide TSOs with full collective bargaining rights by statute. In a parallel approach to the issue, the union also has asked the Obama administration to unilaterally grant officers full civil service protections.

The union also continues to press for permanent leadership for TSA. “Nine years after its founding, TSA is an agency still looking to reach its full potential,” President Kelley said. “TSA has a pressing need for strong, competent leadership that can address important workplace issues and can positively impact morale and attrition rates.”

Not only are fair pay and civil service protections at TSA 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 includes full whistleblower protections by statute; a fair shift-scheduling system and adequate staffing; and revisions to the current TSA training and recertification system.

Chapter 333 joins an ever-growing NTEU network of more than two dozen TSA chapters at more than 40 airports across the country, including new chapters in Vermont and Chicago.

All NTEU TSA chapters operate with local staff attorneys and labor relations experts to represent officers 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 TSOs 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-employee bargaining unit.