Government Unions Build Ranks, Court TSA for Membership

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

Thousands of airport security screeners could choose a union to represent them as early as March, marking the latest expansion of union influence in the public sector, which now has more labor union members than the private sector.

Though union membership nationwide is declining, data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that of the 14.7 million workers who were members of a union in 2010, 7.6 million work in government jobs while 7.1 million are in the private sector.

The overall labor union membership fell from 12.3 percent to 11.9 percent of the working population. But with fewer workers under government than in businesses, the membership rate reached 36.2 percent for public sector employees, compared with just 6.9 percent for the private sector.

Participation was highest for local government workers, whose generous retirement and other benefits have contributed to long-term budget deficits in states across the country.

But employees for the Transportation Security Administration could make the federal unionized labor force much stronger. After a meeting among representatives from TSA, the Federal Labor Relations Authority and the two unions vying for TSA's employees, a tentative vote was scheduled for March 9 to decide whether to organize, and if so, with which union.

The election, covering more than 40,000 employees, will be the largest in federal government history, according to the National Treasury Employees Union, which is competing with the American Federation of Government Employees during the six-week balloting process.

Both unions are pressing for collective-bargaining rights in the very-near future, a possibility that has troubled lawmakers in the past.

"Employees should have had (collective-bargaining rights) from day one," NTEU President Colleen Kelley told FoxNews.com, expressing concern that TSA workers are worried about "favoritism" at the agency -- something she claims her union could address.

"If those workplace rules are rules employees don't see as fair ... then you're going to have a work environment that is not a healthy one for employees and not a healthy one for the agency. And that's what currently exists at the TSA," she said.

Others aren't so sure whether a unionized TSA workforce is a positive step.

"Unionization typically means two things: higher costs for employment and no change in productivity; in fact, maybe even a backsliding in productivity," said Daniel Griswold, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies. "Bottom line is we're going to get less security for the dollar, or pay more for the same amount of security."
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Well, at least they'll be able to get waivers from Obamacare...