The TSA Unionizes for the First Time

by Renee Nal

The TSA will now have collective bargaining rights, for the first time ever. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union will be representing the 44,000 newly unionized airport screeners. The controversial Transportation Security Administration was founded 10 years ago in the wake of 9/11/2001.


Steve Strunsky from NJ.com reports that a "ratification signing ceremony" involving union and Administration officials was held at AFGE headquarters in Washington D.C. this past week. As reported, the workers will now have "more say in what they wear on the job, the shifts they work and the time off they take, whether they can change from part-time to full-time work or back."

Before the administration proceeds with unionizing all employees, perhaps they should get their own house in order first.

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee found disturbing and frankly, astonishing, examples of waste and inefficiency, and declared that the administration:

"was intended to be a lean security agency with the flexibility to quickly respond and adapt to potential threats of terrorism. Instead TSA has mushroomed into a massive, inflexible, backward-looking bureaucracy of more than 65,000. Over its first ten years of existence, the agency and its numerous failures have cost taxpayers $57 billion."

The damning report also found that the Administration "has become too focused on maintaining and growing its own bureaucracy". Wouldn't unionizing fit into this charge?

Last month, the Administration finally started to remove the controversial, intrusive body scanners from airports, after they were found to be a "waste of money." The controversy raged, as American citizens felt violated by this technology.

The Transportation Security Agency's current administrator under the Obama Administration, John Pistole, reversed the Bush Administration's decision not to allow collective bargaining for the workers. Pistole was in the news this summer, as his organization was "bashed" by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle regarding "performance" issues of his administration, as reported by cbsnews.

Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security was one of the most vocal critics, as he expressed his concern with the administration's ability to adapt to "changing threats to the air travel system and the changing needs of travelers," as well as the sheer volume of employees.

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi "called for an independent analysis". At one point, Rogers said to Pistole, "you and I both know, everybody in this room knows, you can get by with less folks." Under the Obama Administration, these "folks" will be able to have more say on what they wear on the job.

Seems reasonable.

Do you feel safer with the Transportation Security Administration? Or would you rather see the security provided by this massive government bureaucracy in the private sector?