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JFK Security Staff Bolts NTEU

By ARI PAUL

Transportation Security Officers at John F. Kennedy Airport announced Jan. 11 that they switched unions, from the National Treasury Employees Union to the American Federation of Government Employees.

The Chief-Leader/Michael O'Kane JOHN GAGE: 'We'll give them autonomy.'

The NTEU established a chapter of Transportation Security Administration screeners at the airport in April, but AFGE National President John Gage said members there contacted his union in December asking for a change in representation.

'Grew Disenchanted'

"The people who got active became disenchanted with that union, and I think they saw it was AFGE that had been with the TSOs from the very beginning," said Mr. Gage, who announced the change with the airport workers last week. "We're an extremely democratic union and a very diverse union. We also believe in very strong autonomous locals. NTEU is a very top-down union."

AFGE has established a new affiliate, Local 2222, which will be its eighth TSA local. It is intended to eventually represent TSA screeners at airports in New York and New Jersey, said Mr. Gage.

"Instead of having a lot of small locals scattered over New York State, I think that they saw coming together as a much stronger local would be more in the interest of TSOs than going airport by airport," he said of the union's organizing strategy.

The Chief-Leader/Michael O'Kane THEY WOULD RATHER SWITCH: American Federation of Government Employees organizer Peter Winch (left) joined U.S. Transportation Security Administration screener Nancy Basmagy Jan. 11 at the chapel at John F. Kennedy International Airport as screeners there announced a change in union representation.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley accused AFGE of piggybacking off the organizing her union has done.

'Stole Our Model'

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," she said in a statement. "AFGE's new-found desire to form local chapters copies NTEU's successful on-the-ground representational model. They have seen that NTEU's representational model works. NTEU has fought for dozens of TSA employees at JFK and successfully concluded many cases, including reinstatement of employees discharged for alleged misconduct and performance, rescission of proposed discharges and mitigation of discipline."

She added that two dissident officers at the NTEU chapter at the airport called for the switch and that her union still considered itself a representative unit for TSA employees there.

The NTEU recently set up a TSA chapter at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, while AFGE represents 5,000 TSA screeners nationwide. Both unions have lobbied for legislation granting screeners collective bargaining rights and both represent workers in other Department of Homeland Security agencies, such as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The presidents of both unions have stated that staffing shortages, job-related injuries, capricious scheduling and arbitrary promotions have led to low morale in the agency.

"There's just issue after issue," said Mr. Gage. "It's so subjective from a supervisory point of view and there's really no employee voice at work whatsoever. The turnover rate has been horrendous."