If anti-labor forces in Washington are nothing else, they are persistent. Yesterday the House of Representatives narrowly passed a Republican amendment to the Department of Homeland Security budget which would prevent thousands of airport screeners from forming a union, a right they won only months ago after a bruising Senate fight.
Employees of the Transportation Security Administration are currently voting in a runoff election to determine whether the American Federation of Government Employees or the National Treasury Employees Union will represent them.
But late Wednesday, Rep. Todd Rokita, a Republican from Indiana, offered an amendment to the Homeland Security bill that would prevent any federal funds from being used for collective bargaining by the TSA, citing national security concerns. “Collective bargaining agreements would hamper the critical nature of TSA agents’ national security responsibilities,” Rokita said on the House floor. “Union demands will unquestionably make our transportation security more costly and less efficient.”
The amendment passed by a narrow 218-205 margin, with 18 Republicans defecting from an otherwise party-line vote. Rokita’s national security rhetoric echoed Republican tactics from a debate in the Senate earlier this year, which narrowly defeated two measures that would have prevented TSA unionization.
No comments:
Post a Comment