TSA plans to bust labor union despite court order blocking it

The Transportation Security Administration on Friday announced that it will terminate its union contract and strip its workforce of their collective bargaining rights next month, an apparent violation of a court order against the agency that has been in place since June.

When TSA was established following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the agency had broad discretion to administer its own personnel system. But following years of poor morale and high attrition rates, the agency granted the workforce abridged collective bargaining rights in 2011 and expanded those rights in 2022, along with a new pay scale akin to the federal government’s General Schedule.

In March, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a determination seeking to unwind TSA workers’ collective bargaining rights, but U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman found that decision to be retaliatory against the American Federation of Government Employees, particularly due to the “threadbare justification” in Noem’s memo, and issued a preliminary injunction blocking the action.

But in a memo to Hydrick Thomas, president of AFGE Council 100, which represents TSA workers, acting TSA Assistant Administrator for Human Capital Thomas Regan wrote that Noem issued a revamped determination again banning unions at TSA, effective Jan. 11, 2026.

“As set forth in the September Determination, TSA is returning to its original labor framework, in place for the first decade of the Agency’s existence, in which collective bargaining and exclusive representation were not permitted,” Regan wrote. “As such, individuals carrying out the security screening function under section 44901 of Title 49, United States Code, shall not, as a term or condition of their employment, be entitled to engage in collective bargaining or be represented for the purpose of engaging in such bargaining by any representative or organization. Further, those individuals shall not, as a term or condition of their employment, be exclusively represented for purposes other than collective bargaining by any representative or organization.”

In her new determination, Noem bemoaned that the negotiation of four union contracts since 2012 cost the agency a combined total of $1.2 million in official time and travel expenses. TSA’s budget in fiscal 2024 was 9.5 billion.

“President Trump’s administration is focused on eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government,” Noem wrote. “It is my assessment that the costs of administering a collective bargaining and exclusive representation framework have been wasteful, and the agency—and the American people—would be better served by redirecting resources to mission-focused duties.

Union officials blasted TSA’s renewed effort to strip airport screeners of their union rights and warned that without labor presence at airports, public service will suffer.

“Prior to having a union contract, many employees endured hostile work environments and workers felt like they didn’t have a voice on the job, which led to severe attrition rates and longer wait times for the traveling public,” Thomas said. “Since having a contract, we’ve seen a more stable workforce, and there has never been another aviation-related attack on our country.”

“Secretary Noem’s decision to rip up the union contract for 47,000 TSA officers is an illegal act of retaliatory union-busting that should cause concern for every person who steps foot in an airport,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “AFGE will continue to challenge these illegal attacks on our members’ rights to belong to a union, and we urge the Senate to pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act immediately.”