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.
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.
TSA is part of the whole post 9/11 patriot act authoritarian push. It needs to end. It was a pointless unnecessary overreaction then, and it remains so.
TSA are cops. And cops aren’t workers. They’re class traitors. The enforcement arm of capital.
But that’s the spin. Trump didn’t try to break the TSA union.
Trump is trying to break a cop union.
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.
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.
Ronald Reagan did exactly that with air traffic controllers. Fired the lot of them.
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…
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.
Yes. Reagan did it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_(1968)
Quite a deal at the time.
No, he doesn’t. This is Trump just hurling executive orders at things he doesn’t like.
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.
I clarified further. In the rail strike case, it was a senate bill, not an executive action. And the bill passed 80-15. Biden signed the bill, but that isn’t the same thing at all.
He literally could have vetoed it if he wanted to and put it back in the hands of the Senate but OK.
With such a high majority it would have just been overturned immediately, so no, he couldn’t have vetoed the bill. An attempt to do so wouldn’t have helped at all and might have undermined future cooperation.
Yes. He could have. Actions have meaning. He chose not to.
I’ve already addressed that point.
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…
Worst jobs program ever, all you need is a good metal detector and that’s it. The security theater after 9/11 has been and always will be a joke.
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.
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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.
Oh, my friend, of course we can quantify it. There was a time when TSA didn’t exist. And of course many other countries don’t have TSA.
Bust/siezing data must be classified. I bet Congress has access to it, no?
Also many “mundane” duties of customs are important. Like keeping parasites or invasive species out.
TSA has nothing to do with customs, who do an actual important job as you note. TSA is strictly domestic “security”
Ah yeah I mixed that up.
People are kinda crazy though. It doesn’t have to be so extreme, they aren’t going to stop a smart/motivated terrorist, but I think a deterrent against some poor soul bringing their family gun on board is a good idea.
Hey, maybe they’re a deterrent but they definitely don’t have a good track record. I just miss when you could see your friend or family member off to the gate. Now it’s just another part of the misery factory that is air travel.
you still can go, you just have to ask the ticket agent for a pass to get through security.
TSA is worthless, my friend. Nobody should support their agency. Fire them all, please. I do, however, support workers unionizing and striking, and if that is TSA employees, high five.
Cops shouldn’t have unions. 🤷♀️
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TSA are cops. Do we show solidarity with cop unions?
Cop unions are just gangs.
SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS
