Ready for Unionized Airport Security?

WSJ ^ | 3-11-11 | kimberly strassel

[WOBBLY BOB]

Even as state battles rage, the Obama administration has been facilitating the largest federal union organizing effort in history. Tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners are now casting votes to choose a union to collectively bargain for cushier personnel practices on their behalf.

Liberals are calling it a "historic" vote. It is. Henceforth, airport security will play second fiddle to screener "rights."

[WOBBLY BOB]

[Diogenesis]

[kittymyrib]

Heard on a call-in show that one of the stipulations in the Homeland Security Bill that created TSA was that these employees could NOT be unionized. So how can BO ignore this Congressional ban without invalidating the TSA’s charter? TSA should be defunded because their contract with the government has been broken. Are the members of Congress men or mice?

[muawiyah]

With Democrat majorities in the House and Senate Obama changed the law.

Anyway, once the TSA pukes are unionized if one of them gets overly familiar you can do the retaliatory beat down on his union boss ~

[Clump]

Ping

[Eric in the Ozarks]

One overlooked item;
Some smaller airports are opting out of inspections by TSA.

[WOBBLY BOB]

I saw this coming- I knew creating DHS was a huge mistake.

[preamble]

it was an executive order a couple weeks ago on a Friday.

no one covered it

[WOBBLY BOB]

nice—our complicit marxist media.

[WOBBLY BOB]

now that they’re free from worry over being fired they can really give the winky a good tug.

http://thedailypatdown.com/

[WOBBLY BOB]

anything to do with this?

T.S.A. Says Airport Security Officers Can Unionize

Seeking to end a debate that has brewed for nearly a decade, the director of the Transportation Security Administration announced on Friday that a union would be allowed to bargain over working conditions on behalf of the nation’s 45,000 airport security officers, although certain issues like pay will not be subject to negotiation.

The question of whether unions can negotiate on behalf of airport security workers has been a repeated topic of partisan debate on Capitol Hill, at times threatening to hold up major pieces of legislation or even the Senate confirmation of the agency’s director.

John S. Pistole, the former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who has served as head of the transportation agency since last June, announced Friday that he would used the power granted to him by Congress to authorize collective bargaining by airport security personnel on a limited set of topics, including rules governing who gets priorities for vacation time and shift assignments, how workplace transfers take place and how employees are recognized for commendable work. The negotiations will take place on a national level, not with state or local union affiliates.

The nation’s security officers are tentatively scheduled to vote in early March for one of two unions that have competed for the right to represent them, or not to have a union at all. But if they choose a union, they will not be able to turn to it to bargain on their behalf for such traditionally negotiated topics as pay, retirement benefits, job qualification rules, disciplinary standards or issues related to security procedures, like what security equipment they must use or when and where they are deployed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/us/05unionize.html

[traditional1]

"The nation’s security officers are tentatively scheduled to vote in early March for one of two unions that have competed for the right to represent them"

Most of the TSA "officers" I've seen will have to have someone help them with reading the form, and spelling their name.

I don't fly anymore, simply because of the bullshit and 3 hours in an airport waiting for a 1 hour flight is not my idea of a good time. Some guy groping my crotch somehow doesn't go well with me, either. I can drive when I need to travel, even if it takes a day or two.

[11th Commandment]

We need to go back about 10 years ago. The only reason the Democrats wanted the huge bureaucracy of the Department of Homeland Security was to unionize tens of thousands of new security personnel. Bush saw the ruse and opposed DHS formation. After GOP congressional maneuvering, DHS was formed without the ability for its employees to Unionize. The RATS went to work and ten years later, TSA is Unionize.

[Harley]

Why does TSA need a union? Don’t they get enough pay? Don’t they get regular breaks? Don’t they get retirement benefits? Don’t they get the feeling of power and authority? Don’t they get to molest hand selected individuals? Looks like they already are sucking plenty of gravy.