Transportation Security Administration officers who work in South Florida's three major airports are rallying Saturday to call on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Congress to restore their collective bargaining rights.
DHS said last month that it was ending the collective bargaining agreement with tens of thousands of frontline TSA employees, marking a major effort to dismantle union protections under the Trump administration.
The TSA union called it on “unprovoked attack” and vowed to fight it.
The department criticized the union whose staffers are responsible for keeping weapons off airplanes and protecting air travel. Officials said that poor performers were being allowed to stay on the job and that the agreement was hindering the ability of the organization “to safeguard our transportation systems and keep Americans safe” — an assessment that faced immediate pushback from a top Democrat in Congress and the union.
“This action will ensure Americans will have a more effective and modernized workforces across the nation’s transportation networks,” TSA said in a statement.
"The Trump administration decided to take away TSA officers 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," said the the American Federation of Government Employees Local 558, which represents TSA officers in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach airports, in a statement.
The union and its members will rally at Miami International Airport, beginning at 11 a.m.
READ MORE: Homeland Security ends TSA collective bargaining agreement, in effort to dismantle union protections
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