Posted on 03/06/2007 10:03:56 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Tuesday to give 45,000 airport screeners the same union rights as border patrol, customs and immigration agents, despite a veto threat from the White House.
The 51-46 vote was on an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., to remove the union rights from a broad anti-terrorism bill to implement recommendations of the 9/11 commission previously rejected by Congress.
The House passed a similar anti-terrorism bill with the same union provision for airport screeners in an indication of organized labor's strength with Democrats now running Congress.
Republicans vowed to strike the union provision when negotiators sit down to merge the House and Senate bills together to implement recommendations of the 9/11 commission previously rejected by Congress.
"We're not going to let big labor compromise national security," said Sen. Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record), R-Ky., noting there are not enough votes in either the House or Senate to override a veto by President Bush.
Screeners "deserve our respect, not our indifference," said Sen. Sherrod Brown (news, bio, voting record), D-Ohio. Brown said collective bargaining rights wouldn't allow screeners to strike, and would grant them basic protections from overwork, dangerous conditions and retaliation if they report security breaches.
"It's absolutely absurd," said Sen. Richard Burr (news, bio, voting record), R-N.C. "Terrorists don't go on strike. Terrorists don't call their union to negotiate before they attack."
White House officials released a statement last week saying President Bush's senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill if it includes the union provision for screeners.
When Congress created the Homeland Security Department after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, it specifically ruled out collective bargaining rights for screeners, who were becoming federal employees under the new Transportation Security Administration.
There are about 53,000 Homeland Security employees who have collective bargaining rights, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.
The screeners' boss, TSA chief Kip Hawley, told a Senate panel Monday that giving airport screeners collective bargaining rights would hinder the agency's flexibility to move them around in response to terrorist threats.
"Going backwards to a system that adds bargaining, barriers and bureaucracy to an agency on whom travelers depend for their security can be characterized as many things, but it does not improve security," Hawley told a subcommittee of the Homeland Security committee.
John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said unions represent many other federal workers who protect the public from terrorism.
"When we hear that collective bargaining rights will affect our national security, I really take offense," said Gage, whose union represents airport screeners but not for collective bargaining purposes.
A stumbling block to Senate passage was removed Thursday when the Homeland Security Department agreed to grant states an extra year and a half to comply with new driver's license standards passed in the 2005 REAL-ID Act.
The nation's governors and Congress said there wasn't enough money for states to convert their databases or enough time to develop driver's licenses that critics complain amount to a national ID card and could promote identity theft.
The Senate bill would upgrade security on passenger and freight railroads and require all cargo carried on commercial passenger aircraft to be screened for bombs.
It would provide funds for state and local emergency communications systems, expand a visa waiver benefit for favored countries and improve intelligence sharing among federal, state and local officials.
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On the Net:
Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov
lol. that was the entire point from the get go.
Who woke him up, and what do you reckon made him grow a pair?
DOW is up?
Oh boy, another great law by Congress. Now our supposed safety aides in Homeland Security may go on strike if Muslims invade the Tampa Airport in great numbers. After all, unions love to strike when there is just too much to handle! Oh those Dems. We will not profile Muslims, but boy howdy, we will give strike permission to TSA. Yipe.
He's had a pair all along, despite what some on the NC board may think.
I think his ACU rating is about as good as you're going to see out of N.C.
We can't have perfection or 100% conservative ideological purity despite how much we may want or wish for it.
What are you saying?
What has he done to make you say that?
Yeah, all those people that went on the public payroll.
I woke up today
HONK HONK HONK....
Although I haven't criticized Burr like the others on the state board, I have wondered where he went to. He was elected and pretty much disappeared. I attributed this to his gathering the coins of the DC realm (favors), but I would have liked to see him make more public statements. I've sent him many messages, and gotten few replies.
Our other senator has replied to every message I've sent her. Her replies were insipid, but she replied.
I guess Brown will be happy to eliminate the US Department of Labor once allowing workers to unionize since it would obviously be needlessly redundant.
I can top that. When I was in Detroit, I found a number of the airport screeners in the "Religious Reflections Room" praying toward Mecca. I kid you not.
Unions also represent most of the civilian employees at Walter Reed who done such a wonderful job.
The good news would be because they work in aviation-related jobs, they must organize nation-wide or not at all. For example, you cannot start a union and get negotiating rights for just the employess in Chicago. If there are 50,000 TSA people, you need to get 25,001 to sign on. And that is a lot harder than organizing local-by-local.
Can someone post some GOOD news today? :O)
&&
There was no coverage of Anna Nicole on TV today.
Dream on. It's still early!
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