TSA to Expand Collective Bargaining Rights of Transportation Security Officers

The Department of Homeland Security has launched efforts to increase the collective bargaining power of the Transportation Security Administration‘s screening officer workforce.

DHS said it will also ensure that TSA’s internal policies are guided by the principles of the Merit Systems Protection Board, an executive agency responsible for performing employee appeals functions and merit system studies.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, a 2021 Wash100 winner, praised TSA’s frontliners for their efforts to keep American travelers safe throughout the pandemic.

“They deserve the empowerment of collective bargaining and a compensation structure that recognizes and rewards them for their contributions to our safety and security,” Mayorkas said.

The expansion of the workforce’s bargaining rights is in line with President Joe Biden’s April 26 executive order titled “Worker Organization and Empowerment.”

In Executive Order 14025, Biden said the federal government has not used its full authority to implement the National Labor Act, which requires the United States to encourage worker organizing and collective bargaining.

Biden attributed the decline in union density and the loss of worker power to the federal government’s failure to modernize labor-management relations.

TSA has been tasked with evaluating appeal procedures and other personnel policies to find more ways to empower the agency’s workforce, DHS said.

DHS said TSA will implement the changes in collaboration with the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents lower-ranking transportation security officers.

The department added that it will take notes from other federal agencies to ensure that the new policies do not hinder TSA’s national security mission.