Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) in 2011 voted to join AFGE to improve their working conditions so that they could focus on protecting the flying public.
Fourteen years later, the Trump administration decided to take away their collective bargaining rights using fabricated claims about TSOs and union officials, making clear this action has nothing to do with efficiency, safety, or homeland security.
Clearly, this action is a retaliation against AFGE, which has been out in front challenging this administration’s unlawful actions targeting federal workers, both in the legal courts and in the court of public opinion.
“This is merely a pretext for attacking the rights of regular working Americans across the country because they happen to belong to a union,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley.
“47,000 Transportation Security Officers show up at over 400 airports across the country every single day to make sure our skies are safe for air travel. Many of them are veterans who went from serving their country in the armed forces to wearing a second uniform protecting the homeland and ensuring another terrorist attack like Sept. 11 never happens again,” he added. “Secretary Noem and the Trump administration have violated these patriotic Americans’ right to join a union.”
All federal employees who join AFGE or any other union do so voluntarily. Joining the union is not a requirement of working at TSA or any other federal agency.
Despite false claims to the contrary, TSOs who volunteer as union representatives account for less than half a percent of all work hours performed at TSA. There are fewer union representatives nationwide at TSA than the number of total screeners at 86% of individual federal airports.
Trump’s action also tracks with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint that Trump disavowed during the campaign trail, as it calls for immediately ending collective bargaining rights at TSA.
AFGE is calling on all patriotic and freedom-loving Americans to contact your elected officials and demand they take action immediately to stop these attacks.
“Let’s be clear: this is the beginning, not the end, of the fight for Americans’ fundamental rights to join a union,” Kelley said. “AFGE will not rest until the basic dignity and rights of the workers at TSA are acknowledged by the government once again.”
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