Despite Bush Veto Threat
NTEU Out to Enlist Kennedy Screeners

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

The National Treasury Employees Union will set up its first chapter of Federal security screeners at Kennedy Airport this week, even as the Bush Administration continues to deny the screeners collective-bargaining rights.

COLLEEN M. KELLEY: Screeners need a union.

NTEU said that 600 of JFK's 1,400 screeners had signed union membership forms and that screeners previously organized as the Metropolitan Airport Workers Association had asked NTEU to represent them. Legislation to grant workers at the Transportation Security Administration collective-bargaining rights has passed both houses of Congress, but President Bush has threatened to veto the bill.

Unions Bickering

Fueling the flames of a long-standing labor rivalry, officials at the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 5,000 TSA employees nationwide, have accused the NTEU of treading on AFGE's turf and issued a public statement saying the NTEU "should be ashamed."

"Our union is well-positioned to represent these front-line employees," said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. "They get very little support from TSA management."

Ms. Kelley said that the screeners, known as Transportation Security Officers, or TSOs, had a host of complaints, including inconsistencies in the grievance procedure and problems with work schedules, health and safety, inadequate training, high parking costs and a pay-for-performance system in which an average of 2 percent of employees are rated "outstanding" and 20 percent as "exceeding expectations."

JOHN GAGE: Accuses NTEU of poaching.

The newly formed Chapter 304 will adopt by-laws, elect local officers and hold shop steward training, beginning next week. Ms. Kelley will appoint interim officers from the pool of 600 dues-payers to serve while the chapter gets up and running.

TSA: Worked Out Kinks

TSA officials in the past admitted to having some kinks in their system due to the re-organization of the Federal Government after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and the formation of its parent entity, the Department of Homeland of Security, in 2002. But they say the agency now functions well, and point to the existence of employee councils which allow staff input and problem-solving.

But Ms. Kelley said that TSOs have told NTEU organizers that the employee councils are a one-way street. "They are able to bring problems to management, but it pretty much ends there," she said. "There's a pretty big disconnect between management and what employees are experiencing on the ground."

TSA's written policy allows employees to join unions who can act as their representatives, but without collective-bargaining rights, management has the right to unilaterally set workplace policies.

"These employees should have the same bargaining rights as other employees in DHS," said Ms. Kelley. "We could negotiate a tremendous agreement, with language mutually agreed to rather than in some management directive." She noted that the grievance procedure is an in-house system with no mechanism for independent review.

LaGuardia TSOs Interested

She added that TSOs at airports in Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, New York/LaGuardia, and Newark had expressed interest in joining NTEU.

NTEU currently represents over 500 Customs and Border Patrol employees at JFK. The union is awaiting certification of an election last June that would make NTEU the exclusive representative of CBP employees, with the exception of the Border Patrol agents, and add about 600 more JFK employees to its ranks. NTEU, which has about 150,000 employees, prevailed over the larger, 600,000-strong AFGE by a count of 7,349 to 3,426 in the June election.

AFGE officials accused NTEU last week of arriving late on the scene at TSA, just as Congress was finally making moves to grant those employees collective bargaining rights.

"NTEU is using TSOs as pawns in its ploy to get attention," said AFGE President John Gage in a statement. "It is demeaning and offensive, and AFGE has no doubt the TSOs will see right through this pitiful farce."

NTEU officials said that the Congressional bills were not an impetus for its organizing drive. "It's just kind of a bonus that the legislation is out there on a parallel track," said Ms. Kelley.

If TSA employees were granted bargaining rights, either AFGE or NTEU could petition the Federal Labor Relations Authority to be named the exclusive representative of a specific bargaining unit. A unit could be defined as one airport, a region of airports, or nationwide, making it possible for multiple unions to represent TSA employees. There is no indication that President Bush is re-thinking his promise to veto any bill that includes union-rights for TSA employees, but labor officials are hoping that a new Oval Office occupant in 2009 may change their fortunes.

"This is a very exciting step forward," said Ms. Kelley. "This is a high-stress job, and TSA employees need serious, effective and determined representation."