AFT Supports Effort To Organize Transportation Officers

The American Federation of Government Employees has filed a
petition with the Federal Labor Relations Authority to be the
exclusive representative for 40,000-plus transportation security officers. The TSOs are the Transportation Security
Administration employees who work hard to keep safe the more
than 600 million people who fly each year. In 2003, the Bush
administration stripped the workers of collective bargaining
rights, and AFGE has been fighting ever since to regain those
rights.

The union now represents more than 13,000 TSOs in more
than 100 airports in 37 locals nationwide. At a Feb. 23 rally in Washington, D.C., several hundred AFGE activists and their
supporters--including a strong contingent from the AFT--urged
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to
act swiftly to restore the workers' rights. The AFT is asking
its members to sign an online petition to Napolitano
(http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/KdABxDs1FQSp/) in support of
collective bargaining rights for TSOs. [Read more at
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/-pABxDs1FQSy/.]