cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/26471893
Summary
Trump is revoking collective bargaining rights at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), ending union protections for thousands of airport security officers.
The Department of Homeland Security claims the move will improve efficiency and security, but unions argue it is a retaliatory attack on federal workers.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) plans to challenge the decision. TSA workers fear the rollback will worsen working conditions and retention.
The policy reverses union rights granted under Obama and expanded by Biden.
Does the president actually have the power to union-bust, or is he just continuing to do what he wants…? I realize it’s largely an academic question, since no one will resist this guy’s illegal actions…
Yes. Reagan did it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_(1968)
Quite a deal at the time.
The implication of the summary text is that the protections were granted by executive mandate, not through legislation, so presumably they could be revoked the same way.
I’m largely uninformed on the specifics, but it’s insane that he can use EOs to give himself the authority to do a thing, then go do the thing he previously wasn’t allowed to do. What the fuck, America!?
It’s a little bit confusing, but from what I’ve read, the collective bargaining rights that they previously enjoyed were granted from the beginning by the agency’s administrator, so it follows that they can be revoked by the agency’s administrator in turn.
Here’s a 2011 NPR article covering when they were initially granted those rights.
As always, this is the danger in allowing such rules to be set by the executive branch instead of codified into law — when the next guy is in office, they can always easily undo it.
Biden did it with the potential rail industry strikes, so yes.
That’s incorrect, and these situations aren’t close to comparable.
When Biden was in power, eight out of twelve unions had already ratified the contract, and the senate passed a bill to force the final four to accept it. It passed 80-15, so Biden couldn’t have vetoed it if he wanted to.
Trump is attempting to ban unions altogether, by executive order.
OP’s point stands though, whether it’s right or not, it seems to be within the President’s power.
Y’all missing the point. Fuck cops sure. But an attack on one union is an attack on unions. Push to abolish the TSA AND support their collective rights.
ACAB includes TSA. Fuck them.
Abolish the TSA.
Boss: I’ve decided to pay you shit wages and expect you to work nightmare hours.
Union: We’ve all banded together and would collectively like to tell you that we prefer better wages and more reasonable hours, or else we will strike.
Boss: I’ve decided you can’t do that, or else.
Union: Yes, or else, indeed. That’s the core concept here.
Call his fuckin’ bluff, or else you don’t really have a union at all.
Ronald Reagan did exactly that with air traffic controllers. Fired the lot of them.
I would love to hear about the day TSA simply didn’t show up. Make this happen, folks.
All their options to deal with it are embarrassing for the stooges in charge.
Just sounds like a win-win. The fascists no longer have their travel cops, and people no longer have to deal with the useless bullshit of the TSA.
You want to piss off employees who keep terrorists, drugs, and weapons out of the country?
On second thought… yes, he does, because he isn’t working for Americans.
Except the TSA has never shown to be remotely effective at doing any of that.
I’m of the opinion that the TSA should probably be abolished, but keeping it while abusing its employees is the worst of both worlds…
There is no way to quantify the number of attacks that would have happened without the TSA. “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. The TSA is a very effective deterrent.
Except the TSA has never shown to be remotely effective at doing any of that.
So, we’d all be OK if these 6,000+ loaded firearms PER YEAR were allowed to pass through unchecked?
There’s always room for improvement, but the idea that everything needs to be abolished, rather than improved, seems crazy.
Considering the TSA frequently fails up to up to 95% of tests, I’m going to guess the number of uneventful loaded firearms on planes is much higher.
🫢 Like I said, room for improvement.
But context matters:
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that airport security misses 95 percent of threats that pass through: The TSA red team is specially trained to detect weaknesses in security at airports throughout the nation.
So your run of the mill bad guy isn’t going to sneak by so easily. And one can only imagine that most bad guys aren’t some elite team of security experts… Unless they are in a Hollywood movie.
Cops shouldn’t have unions. 🤷♀️
