How Maine TSA Workers Kept Their Union Going After Trump Tried to Eliminate It
Last month, a federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security to inform Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport screeners that their collective bargaining agreement had been restored. In February, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced a decision to eliminate the collective bargaining rights for the union representing 47,000 Transportation Security Officers (TSOs), roughly 140 of whom work at Maine’s airports.
“The Noem determination appears to have been undertaken to punish AFGE and its members because AFGE has chosen to push back against the Trump Administration’s attacks to federal employment in the courts,” District Court Judge Marsha Pechman wrote.
The ruling, which came following a lawsuit by the American Federation of Government Employees challenging the Trump administration’s illegal action, temporarily blocks DHS from eliminating the TSA union. Pechman criticized Noem’s “threadbare" reasoning for stripping workers of their union contract and said she expected the union to eventually prevail in their case because the action violated both First and Fifth Amendment Rights, as well as the Administrative Procedures Act (APA).
“Without engaging at all in the prior determination’s studied conclusion that collective bargaining builds greater air travel safety, Noem arrived at a conclusion at odds with more than a decade of consistent agency belief that collective bargaining benefits TSOs, TSA, and the public,” Pechman wrote. “Such an action appears to violate the APA. And Noem’s rescission of the CBA without any process likely violates Due Process, as guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment.”
Members of AFGE Local 2617 were delighted to learn of the court ruling, but the battle isn’t over as the litigation runs through the courts.
“I don't know what every union local did in TSA, but our local had kind of planned for this. Now we're back up and running like nothing ever happened,” said Bill Reiley Regional Vice President of AFGE Local 2617, who is an airport screener at the Portland Jetport. “Fortunately, management, at least in Portland, has been pretty good.”
After Noem’s announcement in late February, AFGE 2617's collective bargaining agreement was immediately nullified. The union was evicted from its office and its company computers were taken away. Reiley lost his union time to represent workers so he went back to working full-time patting down airline passengers. DHS also shut down automatic dues collection for members, so Reiley had to scramble to get members signed for E-dues through the union. Fortunately, he said, the union had prepared for this kind of emergency and had begun setting aside money five years ago so that the treasury could last another four years if the union spent frugally.
“I just kind of went on like business as usual because a bunch of us just kept paying dues because we believe in it and we wanted to make sure we had money for lawsuits,” said AFGE 2617 member Shannon Duong. “AFGE still exists whether you want to recognize us or not.”
Since DHS was forced to turn back on dues collection, the union has shut off dues check off. Losing the union contract meant that union officers couldn’t represent workers in disciplinary actions or file grievances. A lot of workers were nervous knowing they had lost their Weingarten rights, but Duong said union reps still did their best to represent members.
“Just because our union wasn’t recognized and they didn’t have to follow the contract, doesn't mean you can’t ask for representation or have someone there for moral support,” she said. “They may not let you, but it never hurts to ask."
Reiley said union officers tried to adapt to changes by becoming what he described as “personal representatives” to workers.
“It kind of had to go back to the old days,” he said. “I was a union member before we were an official local. I would talk with management because a lot of times workers are afraid to talk to managers. Whether I could get anything changed or not, that's a whole different ballpark.”
The challenge now for the union will be to negotiate a policy for TSA workers who were disciplined during the three-month period when they had no right to union representation. During that time, Reiley still approached new hires to talk to them about the union and invite them to join.
“I try to try to tell people, ‘Look, it's very discouraging and it's hard to deal with [not having a collective bargaining agreement], but you just can't give up.”
DEI Restrictions Harming TSA Employees
Other negative changes to employment policies are also harming workers at the TSA. In April, the Trump administration extended the probationary period from one year to two years. This limits a union representative from protecting probationary employees who are unjustly fired, unless its in violation of Equal Employment Opportunity policies, said Duong, who serves as the union’s Woman's Fair Practice Coordinator
“So now basically they can fire probationary employees for almost any reason,” she said.
Duong said the Trump administration’s removal of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies in the workplace has also hurt TSA employees. Prior to the recent changes, a male member had told her he was uncomfortable working with an openly transgender TSO because he felt she was “falsely representing herself as a female.” The man was shocked when Duong informed him that he had worked beside a number of transgender people in the past and didn’t realize it.
“I said I’m not going to say who it was because it’s not my job to do that, but yes we’ve had people here who are transgender,” she said. “Their gender doesn’t have anything to do with their capabilities. That’s how they present and that’s how they want to be accepted and there’s no policy against that.”
However, earlier this year, TSA went through the agency’s policies and replaced all references to “gender” with “sex” so that transgender employees are no longer allowed to do same sex pat downs. As a result, transgender workers at the airport have been taken off scanning duties.
“To me that’s discrimination in every sense of the word,” said Duong, “but not having the ability to fight that because of the current administration is frustrating from a fairness standpoint.”