The Trump administration said Friday it would rescind the bargaining contract for screening officers with the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), setting up a clash with the union who called it an attack on workers’ rights.
In a statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency said striking the agreement means the “Transportation Security Officers will no longer lose their hard-earned dollars to a union that does not represent them. The Trump Administration is committed returning … to merit-based hiring and firing policies.”
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The DHS also claimed TSA agents were doing more union work than screenings at 86 percent of airports — prompting the Democratic leader of the House Homeland Security Committee to accuse the agency of “lying.”
The department’s statements were contradicted by the employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which called the move a “clearly retaliatory action” for its broader pushback against the Trump administration.
“Today, [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem and the Trump administration have violated these patriotic Americans’ right to join a union in an unprovoked attack,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.
“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,” Kelley continued. “This is merely a pretext for attacking the rights of regular working Americans across the country because they happen to belong to a union.”
The union said it would be evaluating its legal options.
The AFGE also tore into claims about more officers working on union work than screening passengers.
“Despite false claims to the contrary, [transportation security officers] who volunteer as union representatives account for less than half a percent of all work hours performed at TSA,” it said. “There are fewer union representatives nationwide at TSA than the number of total screeners at 86 percent of individual federal airports.”
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A Feb. 27 memo obtained by The Hill Friday shows Noem last week instructed TSA to stop collecting union dues in workers’ paychecks, seeks to rescind another 2022 collective bargaining agreement and otherwise seeks to bar employees from joining any union whatsoever.
The TSA union voted to ratify a contract last March that is set to last for seven years, expanding officers’ ability to trade shifts, along with other provisions.
The contract affects the roughly 50,000 agents who do security screenings at airports across the country. TSA has been without an administrator since day one of the Trump administration, when former leader David Peskoske was forced out.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said stripping the contract “makes zero sense.”
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“It will only reduce morale and hamper the workforce. Since the Biden Administration provided pay increases and a new collective bargaining contract to the workforce, TSA’s attrition rates have plummeted. Trump’s own TSA Administrator — who he fired for no reason — worked hard to get these basic workplace rights enacted,” Thompson said in a statement.
But the Mississippi lawmaker’s sharpest words were targeted at DHS claims about the contract itself.
“However, DHS lying about TSA’s work via press release — relying on antiquated and flat out wrong anti-union talking points — gives their game away,” he said. “DHS claiming that TSA has more people doing ‘full-time union work’ than ‘performing screening functions’ at most airports is clearly nonsense.”
“Similarly, promotions are already merit based and often only occur with the assistance of the union, not despite it,” Thompson added.
