CHICAGO – A recent community event in Chicago brought union representatives together to discuss an ongoing legal battle with the Trump administration after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declared it would terminate the collective bargaining agreement with tens of thousands of employees at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Earlier this month, the DHS announced it would end a collective bargaining agreement for Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) that it said “constrained” the TSA’s ability “to safeguard our transportation systems and keep Americans safe.” It did not offer any proof of its “constrained” allegation.
“Eliminating collective bargaining removes bureaucratic hurdles that will strengthen workforce agility, enhance productivity and resiliency, while also jumpstarting innovation,” the DHS said in a March 7 news release. Again, there was no explanation of those terms.
This announcement comes less than a year after the TSA and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents TSOs, reached a seven-year collective bargaining agreement. This agreement provided such benefits as: Enhanced shift trade options to assist TSOs who need to take unscheduled leave, increased allowances for uniforms, and the addition of parental bereavement leave and weather and safety leave.
Historically, the TSOs were some of the most underpaid and exploited federal workers and had the lowest morale as a result. After their inclusion within the Homeland Security Department after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, then-President George W. Bush (R) invoked a provision in the DHS law banning the TSOs from unionizing on “national security” grounds.
Democratic President Barack Obama lifted that ban and the TSOs unionized. But they remained underpaid until the new contract was negotiated under Democratic President Joe Biden, giving them enormous catchup raises, among other gains.
Now the Trump administration has taken the contract away.
“They unilaterally said that ‘You know what, you guys will no longer have collective bargaining rights.’ In fact, they stated in their statement that ‘Not only will you no longer have any rights today, but any more in the future,’” said Darrell English, the president of AFGE Local 777, to a group of attendees on March 24.
“With that being said, we said, ‘Okay, we’ll see you in court.’ And that’s what we did,” English said.
“Officers feel intimidated. They feel that they can’t take any time off, any leave off. And now management is taking that one-sided approach where either you take it or leave it,” English said.
A coalition of unions led by the AFGE filed a lawsuit against the DHS, TSA, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and TSA Senior Official Adam Stahl for the “unlawful and unilateral termination of a negotiated union contract, which protects approximately 47,000 Transportation Security Officers.”
English said he is confident there is “a very strong case against the agency” given how recently the collective bargaining agreement was signed. But he added the recent developments led some TSOs to consider moving on to a different career that’s more secure.
English highlighted that losing an experienced TSO is detrimental since it takes months to train new hires to be proficient enough to handle the amount of work they can expect during spring break travel.
“Officers feel intimidated. They feel that they can’t take any time off, any leave off. And now management is taking that one-sided approach where either you take it or leave it,” English said.
English continued by addressing how he’s warned officers for months about Project 2025, Trump’s Republican “platform,” written by the radical right Heritage Foundation, and its impacts.
“If you all read Project 2025, it laid out exactly what their intention was,” English said. “We told officers months ago that if these people get in office, this is what’s going to happen: they’re going to first try to de-unionize you; second, they’re going to try to change your status from civil servant to Schedule F; and then make you, after that, try to privatize you.”
“They’re at the first level right now. The union is the only thing stopping them right now,” English said. Schedule F, another Trump idea, would turn tens of thousands of civil servants into political appointees, removable at a boss’s whim.
The community event was organized as part of Chicago Jobs for Justice’s “Civil Servants Speak Out” series and was held at the Unity Center in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago. Attending alongside English was Scott Pejas, the local president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA). The AFA-CWA is among the unions included in the lawsuit against the Homeland Security Department.
And while the DHS asserts the collective bargaining agreement “constrained” the TSA’s ability to “keep Americans safe,” Pejas warned the contract revocation could seriously undermine airport security.
“The decision to eliminate collective bargaining rights for the TSA is a terrible thing for aviation security and everyone who depends on safe travel,” Pejas said. “This will take us back to the days of security at its lowest price at the highest cost for our country.”
Pejas added the ability to have good safety standards depends “on good jobs that attract good candidates” and “the ability of the people on the front lines of aviation security to raise concerns without fear of retaliation.”
“To be clear, the administration does not care about safety, efficiency, or homeland security,” Pejas said. “This and the illegal firings of the federal employees is an unprecedented attack on workers’ rights and our government security.”
Pejas went on to say the DHS’s attempt to end the collective bargaining agreement should be seen in the same light as the “massive cuts underway” at other agencies such as the Department of Education.
Pejas said these are efforts “designed to break these agencies in order to justify privatizing their functions to send more cash to Wall Street; and of course, putting us all at risk, and we end up paying the price.
“We call on all unions, all airline passengers, and all Americans who care about maintaining the safe and secure travel system to demand that the collective bargaining agreement covering TSA workers be honored by the administration,” Pejas said.
“Privatizing TSA would return us to the failed pre-9/11 system of for-profit security screening,” Pejas said. “That system, with underpaid and under speed airport screeners, was a key flaw in the system that allowed 9/11 attacks to take place. Since 9/11 we have committed to never forget and this administration must understand just how seriously we mean it.”
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