No Negotiating Yet
NTEU to Aid Atlanta Airport Screeners

By ARI PAUL

The National Treasury Employees Union announced it has gained representation rights for its second chapter of U.S. Transportation Security Administration employees and said it hoped to combat the low morale plaguing the agency.

COLLEEN M. KELLEY: Need fair schedules.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said during a conference call with reporters that 800 TSA airport screeners at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport - one of the nation's busiest - were on the verge of chartering NTEU Chapter 310. She planned to appoint interim officers until an election process and bylaws were established.

Can Help on Discipline

While TSA employees do not have the right to collectively bargain, they can join unions that are able to represent them in disciplinary meetings. In addition to pressing Congress for bargaining rights, Ms. Kelley outlined the problems in the TSA the union hoped to address.

She focused on the agency's scheduling system, which often gives employees split shifts, meaning four hours working, then four hours off and then four hours working again. She also said workers were penalized if they could not work overtime shifts.

"We also are looking for a fair shift-scheduling system with some sanity in it," Ms. Kelley said. "There's insufficient staffing in many locations."

This caused low morale leading to attrition rates higher than in other Federal agencies, she said, in addition to what she called a capricious promotion system.

Viewed As Unfair

"There's never transparency to it," she said. "There's no accountability. Employees do not see it as a fair system."

The TSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has argued that attrition rates are decreasing and that attrition rates were higher among screeners employed by airline companies before the agency was chartered in late 2001 as a response to the 9/11 attacks.

The NTEU already represents 600 workers at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The American Federation of Government Employees also represents TSA workers around the country. A day after the NTEU conference call, AFGE President John Gage released a statement blasting the agency's evaluation process and wage scales.

"The execution of TSA's evaluation process is severely flawed," he said. "As the TSA union, AFGE will seek congressional action to address these inadequacies and bring about reforms."