TSA Unions to Use Rankings as Bargaining Chip

There are two ways of looking at the Transportation Security Administration's performance in the 2009 Best Places to Work in the federal government report released this week.

One is to hail the TSA's nearly 23 percent increase in its score measuring job satisfaction among employees -- the largest jump among any large subcomponent agency in the federal government -- as evidence that the troubled Department of Homeland Security agency has turned a corner.

"It's a good indicator and validation that the investments we've made in our workforce are really paying off," acting TSA Administrator Gale D. Rossides said in an interview yesterday. "We really have made tremendous progress."

A second take, offered by unions representing TSA employees, is that the agency's score of 49.7 still leaves it near the bottom of the rankings, and that the new study is therefore evidence the agency is still mired in problems.

"After all," John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, one of the unions representing TSA employees, said in a statement, "this agency has the unique distinction of clinging to the bottom of the barrel for many years now."

There is truth to both views, according to Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, the nonprofit organization that released the rankings, which are based on a survey of the federal workforce by the Office of Personnel Management. "With TSA, you're talking about an agency that was in the cellar but still has a long way to go," he said. "To be fair, you have to applaud the improvements they've made."

The TSA's low ranking is being cited in the unions' effort to gain collective bargaining rights at the agency. The AFGE and the National Treasury Employees Union have been signing up members among transportation security officers at airports, but the unions are not now allowed to officially bargain for them.

When he was a candidate, President Obama expressed support for collective bargaining for TSA employees, but action probably awaits the appointment of a permanent TSA administrator. If permission is granted, the NTEU and the AFGE probably will engage in an election contest to win the right to represent the employees.

Colleen M. Kelley, national president of the NTEU, said that despite the progress measured at the TSA, many changes are needed. She said the TSA scored poorly in the partnership study in the category of family-friendly culture and benefits, where it fell 35 percent since the last report two years ago. "That's employees sending a very strong message," Kelley said in an interview.

Aubrey Williams has been a transportation security officer less than one year but said he is upset with much of what he has seen. Williams, speaking in his role as a member of AFGE Local 555 at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, said he is particularly troubled by the management of the agency.

"The leadership there is very poor," said Williams, a member of the local's legislative committee. "The leadership there is really based on fear."