The Department of Homeland Security has ended the collective bargaining agreement covering some 47,000 Transportation Security Administration employees. 

Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it is ending collective bargaining for the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Transportation Security Officers, which has constrained TSA’s chief mission: to safeguard our transportation systems and keep Americans safe.

Eliminating collective bargaining removes bureaucratic hurdles that will strengthen workforce agility enhance productivity and resiliency, while also jumpstarting innovation.

According to DHS, the decision to end the agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees was due to the union's abuse of privileges and its covering up of performance issues by substandard employees.

Gaps in benefit programs, including non-verifiable Family and Medical Leave, are being exploited by a select few poor performers, placing greater burden on TSOs at the expense of American travelers and taxpayers.

This includes instances, where a TSO requested sick leave seven months in advance.

TSA has more people doing full-time union work than we have performing screening functions at 86% of our airports. Of the 432 federalized airports, 374 airports have fewer than 200 TSA Officers to preform screening functions.

Nearly 200 TSA Officers are paid by the government but work full-time on union matters. These people do not retain certification to perform screening functions. Additionally, in a recent TSA employee survey, over 60% said poor performers are allowed to stay employed and, not surprisingly, continue to not perform.

The union claims the action is in retaliation for it fighting for the little guy.

They gave as a justification a completely fabricated claim about union officials – making clear this action has nothing to do with efficiency, safety, or homeland security. This is merely a pretext for attacking the rights of regular working Americans across the country because they happen to belong to a union.

Our union has been out in front challenging this administration's unlawful actions targeting federal workers, both in the legal courts and in the court of public opinion. Now our TSA officers are paying the price with this clearly retaliatory action. 

The TSA has no legal right to organize, but negotiations were opened with the AFGE to represent TSA screeners in June 2021. The agreement was signed in March 2024.

As an aside, on social media, you routinely read comments to the effect that federal employee unions were created in 1962 by John F. Kennedy's Executive Order 10988, and all that is needed to abolish them is to repeal that order. That is utter nonsense. While the Kennedy executive order did open the door, the right of federal employees was codified by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-454), which you can find at 5 USC 71.

This is undoubtedly headed for court because AFGE can't afford to cede this ground without a fight. Because the TSA union does not have Title 5 recognition, the administration will prevail in the end, but we can count on leftist judges to slow things down along the way.

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