The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Friday that it will end a union collective bargaining agreement for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents to “enhance productivity and resiliency” at U.S. airports.
The airport screening agency now “has more people doing full-time union work than we have performing screening functions at 86% of our airports,” DHS said. “Of the 432 federalized airports, 374 airports have fewer than 200 TSA Officers to [perform] screening functions.”
The TSA has about 50,000 staffers—called transportation safety officers—who are responsible for staffing airports around the country and checking to make sure that hundreds of thousands of passengers a day do not carry any weapons or explosives into the secure areas of airports. The TSA was set up under the Bush administration in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“Thanks to Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s action, Transportation Security Officers will no longer lose their hard-earned dollars to a union that does not represent them,” a DHS spokesperson said in an agency-issued press release.
Friday’s decision will enable American travelers to “have a more effective and modernized workforce across the nation’s transportation networks,” the statement said. “TSA is renewing its commitment to providing a quick and secure travel process for Americans.”
The decision to end the collective bargaining agreement comes after President Donald Trump’s administration removed TSA Administrator David Pekoske the day the president was sworn into office. The agency does not currently have an administrator or a deputy administrator.
TSA and the American Federation of Government Employees signed a seven-year-long collective bargaining agreement in May 2024. When the deal was reached, Pekoske told reporters at a signing ceremony that without the bargaining agreement, “we probably wouldn’t have a TSA in five or 10 years.”
Under the agreement, TSA employees received enhanced shift trade options, increased allowance for uniforms, the addition of parental bereavement leave, and weather and safety leave.
Responding to the decision, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said it would create problems within the TSA.
“Attempting to negate their legally binding collective bargaining agreement now makes zero sense—it will only reduce morale and hamper the workforce,” Thompson said in a statement Friday. “Since the Biden Administration provided pay increases and a new collective bargaining contract to the workforce, TSA’s attrition rates have plummeted.”
Since taking office, the Trump administration has issued other directives that have prompted lawsuits and threats from unions. Upon his return in January, the president told workers to return to offices and end remote work policies, issued a directive to reduce the workforce by firing probationary employees, and ordered entire agencies to be shut down or moved.
The American Federation of Government Employees has filed at least one lawsuit against the Trump administration since January over the Office of Personnel Management’s directive to lay off numerous federal employees. It has not issued a public response to the DHS announcement on Friday.
Before the Sept. 11 attacks, private companies had carried out security screenings at most U.S. airports. However, that all changed after the TSA was established more than two decades ago.
The Epoch Times contacted TSA and a TSA union, the American Federation of Government Employees, for comment on Friday.
