Homeland Security renews push to end TSA collective bargaining agreement

The Transportation Security Administration is renewing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s push to end a collective bargaining agreement with airport screening officers — the second such attempt this year, coming just a month after the longest government shutdown on record.

The agency said Friday the move relies on a September memo from Noem — issued months after a federal judge blocked her earlier directive — that says TSA screeners “have a primary function of national security” and therefore should not engage in collective bargaining or be represented by a union.

The American Federation of Government Employees swiftly vowed to fight the decision, calling it illegal and a violation of the preliminary injunction issued in June that halted Noem’s first attempt to terminate the contract covering 47,000 workers.

In the September memo cited by TSA, Noem acknowledged the injunction but did not explain why she concluded it did not prohibit her from pursuing the same outcome through a new directive while the case remains pending. The injunction barred TSA from rescinding the union contract or enforcing Noem’s orders to dismiss pending grievances, but it did not state whether its restrictions would extend to future directives by Noem.

“It definitely seems like they’re using all loopholes to try to eliminate collective bargaining rights for the transportation security officers,” Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the bargaining unit for TSA workers, said Friday in a phone interview.

TSA declined Friday to comment on the union’s assertions. An emailed request for comment was sent to Homeland Security.

The agency said it plans to rescind the current seven-year contract in January and replace it with a new “security-focused framework.” The agreement, reached last May, was supposed to expire in 2031.

Adam Stahl, acting TSA deputy administrator, said in a statement that airport screeners “need to be focused on their mission of keeping travelers safe.”

“Under the leadership of Secretary Noem, we are ridding the agency of wasteful and time-consuming activities that distracted our officers from their crucial work,” Stahl said.

The announcement also comes weeks after Noem held a news conference in which she handed out $10,000 bonus checks to TSA officers who she said went “above and beyond” during the 43-day shutdown, when thousands of airport screeners continued reporting for duty despite missing more than six weeks of pay during the lapse in funding.

“This is how they’re going to be repaid for coming to work every single day during the government shutdown?” Jones said, calling the agency’s decision “a slap in the face to the people they’re handing checks to.”

Noem issued her first memo in February rescinding the collective bargaining agreement. But the union sued, claiming the move was retaliation for AFGE’s resistance to the Trump administration’s actions affecting federal workers, such as firing probationary employees. A trial is currently scheduled for next year.

In granting the preliminary injunction in June, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman of Seattle said the order was necessary to preserve the rights and benefits TSA workers have long held under union representation.

Pechman wrote that AFGE had shown in its lawsuit that Noem’s directive “constitutes impermissible retaliation,” likely violated the union’s due process, and was “arbitrary and capricious” — findings that the judge said make it likely AFGE will ultimately prevail.

AFGE represents about 800,000 federal government employees and has been pushing back as the Trump administration has laid the groundwork to weaken or eliminate protections for federal workers in an effort to shrink the bureaucracy.