The Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 (ATSA) created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to provide oversight of aviation and other transportation security. Instead of utilizing procedures and adhering to laws applying to other federal workers—including other workers in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—the Bush TSA created processes that are a weak version of established practices in other government agencies.
Among the most basic labor rights and workplace protections denied to transportation security officers (TSOs) are:
- Collective bargaining;
- Protection against retaliation for union activities;
- Whistleblower protections;
- The Rehabilitation Act;
- Veterans’ preference;
- Leave and overtime protections; and
- Contractual right to the position or wages offered upon hiring.
In 2006, the International Labor Organization ruled that the law denying collective bargaining rights to 43,000 TSOs was a violation of a fundamental workers' right recognized by the international community. As a result of the denial of collective bargaining and labor rights and the inability to enforce the workplace protections afforded other DHS workers, TSOs have an attrition rate almost 10 times that of workers at other federal agencies and a workplace injury rate of 10 percent, among the highest of federal workers.
Continuation of this systematic denial of fundamental labor and workplace rights undermines the collective bargaining rights and workplace protections of all federal workers.
The AFL-CIO calls on the Obama Administration and Congress to ensure – through legislation or executive action – that TSOs can exercise the same rights as other workers in DHS. We pledge to oppose any political attempts to use national security fears to curtail the collective bargaining rights of other federal workers.