By Stephen Barr
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
It's almost a replay from five years ago.
The Senate plans to vote today on whether to extend union rights to federal airport screeners, a fundamental question that confronted Congress when it created the Transportation Security Administration after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Following a contentious debate at the time, Congress left union rights to the discretion of the Bush administration, which decided collective bargaining was inappropriate for TSA workers because of national security considerations. Last month, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), brought the issue back, a sign of how the 2006 election has changed congressional priorities.
But the administration is holding firm. Yesterday, at a Senate subcommittee hearing, Kip Hawley, head of the TSA, rejected proposals by Lieberman and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) that would provide bargaining rights for transportation security officers, popularly called security screeners.
The proposals, Hawley said, pose "a serious negative security impact."
Although unions represent law enforcement officers at the Border Patrol and the U.S. Capitol Police, Hawley said the demands placed on screeners, who work in more than 400 airports, are different than those at other agencies.
"TSA's mission requires that its officers be proactive, that TSOs constantly change what they do and where they do it," he said. "They are required to flex to different places in the airport and to meet suddenly changing security and operating needs."
Providing bargaining rights would allow unions to take grievances to outside arbitrators to review management decisions "after the fact" and "sets up a morass of wasted time that detracts from the focus on security," Hawley said.
The TSA has provided senators with a private briefing on TSA security requirements, using information that cannot be publicly disclosed, Hawley said.
After Hawley's testimony, the Senate panel heard from John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, who said Hawley's concerns were misplaced. Since 2002, AFGE has pushed for the right to bargain on behalf of the TSA employees.
Gage pointed to the union contract with the Capitol Police, which he said permits the police chief to suspend contract provisions on shift assignments, vacations and other workplace matters to meet staffing shortages or emergencies. Gage, who noted that AFGE bargains on behalf of employees at the Defense Department and other agencies with security-related work, suggested the Capitol Police contract could be a model for the TSA.
Union contracts are "bargained in the context of an agency's mission," cannot stop an agency from deploying employees and provide employees with a forum to address unfair treatment, Gage said.
"These are rights," he said. "They should not be taken away lightly."
The hearing was held by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on the federal workforce, chaired by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii). He was joined at the hearing by Sens. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio), Susan M. Collins (R-Maine), John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).
Coburn suggested the hearing would not make a difference in the Senate's deliberations because the union-rights provision is on the chamber's floor in legislation dealing with unfinished recommendations from the 9/11 commission. "Doing this [hearing] after the fact says a whole lot on how the Senate operates," he said.
Last week, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C. ) proposed striking the Lieberman provision from the bill. McCaskill, in turn, offered a substitute that would give TSA screeners the right to collective bargaining but make it clear that they cannot strike or negotiate for higher pay.
Her amendment stipulates that screeners must follow agency orders during emergencies and "newly imminent threats." She also would prevent the use of classified or sensitive information in grievance proceedings.
Collins said yesterday that she hopes to win support for a compromise that would guarantee screeners coverage by government-wide whistle-blower protections and that would assure them the right to appeal major disciplinary actions to the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent agency.
She hinted that her proposal would let senators put off a decision on screener union rights for a year by requiring a review of the TSA personnel system, probably by the Government Accountability Office.
Aides to President Bush have said they will recommend a veto of the bill implementing the 9/11 panel's recommendations if it includes union rights for screeners. Senate Republicans hope to sustain the veto, noting that 36 GOP senators, including Coburn and Warner, have signed a letter to Bush objecting to the union provision.
Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.
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