While the ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Susan Collins, R-Maine, has said that TSA administrator John Pistole’s decision to allow limited collective bargaining for airport screeners raised the specter of endless haggling over the scope of bargaining allowed.
"While the administration purports to carve out certain security-related functions from collective bargaining, the scope of this exception could itself be the subject of protracted litigation," Collins said in a statement on the decision.
To her point, the National Treasury Employees Union reacted to Pistole’s decision by laying out its agenda to reform a host of issues he specifically identified as off the table. NTEU’s rival in seeking representation rights, the American Federation of Government Employees, has laid out a similar agenda.
An amendment to bar screeners from bargaining is being offered by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., to the FAA authorization bill. Collins is a co-sponsor, but only after she added language that would reaffirm screeners’ rights to belong to a union, provide them the right to appeal major personnel decisions to MSPB, cover them under standard whistleblower protections, and create a channel for collaboration over issues that typically are negotiable in unionized settings.
According to TSA, bargaining would be allowed on issues relating to employment including shift bids, transfers and awards, but would be prohibited on security policies, procedures or the deployment of security personnel or equipment, proficiency testing, job qualifications or discipline standards, and similar issues.
An election has been set for March 9 – April 19, with voting to take place by phone and online. According to TSA, if screeners opt for collective bargaining it would cost the agency around $5 – $8 million to implement, with bargaining allowed at the national level only.
