LAS VEGAS, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With some 12,000 Transportation Security Administration members in 35 Locals nationwide, the American Federation of Government Employees will mark its role as the only real union for TSA workers with a celebration of Transportation Security Officers in Las Vegas on Nov. 19.
The event also will serve as an open forum discussion between TSOs and AFGE staff and labor leaders, including Nevada State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Danny L. Thompson. While the powerful AFL-CIO has supported AFGE in its efforts at TSA for eight years, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in September extended that support.
"Right now, 40,000 TSA employees are on the verge of winning their collective bargaining rights. Our sisters and brothers in AFGE are going to organize them, and . . . I want you to know that the AFL-CIO will stand with them until every last one of those TSA employees are organized," Trumka said.
"Unlike stand-alone unions, AFGE enjoys the AFL-CIO's enormous political clout on Capitol Hill and across the country," said AFGE National President John Gage. "Being a part of the AFL-CIO is being a part of the rich and proud history of the U.S. labor movement -- an institution that is critical to our country and its middle class."
Two topics of discussion are sure to include the nomination of Erroll Southers as TSA administrator and the lack of collective bargaining at TSA.
"We look forward to working with Mr. Southers to turn this agency around to one that its employees and the American public can be proud of," Gage said. "The question of bargaining rights at TSA is not a matter of 'if' but 'when' and we are confident that the appointment of a new administrator will help put that matter to bed.
"AFGE is the only union that can truthfully and proudly say that it has been fighting for collective bargaining for the entire eight years TSA has been in existence," he added. "This is a battle not just for bargaining rights, but for the respect and dignity long overdue to TSOs."
WHO: The American Federation of Government Employees Local 1234
Nevada State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Danny L. Thompson
WHAT: AFGE will show its solidarity for TSOs and host a meet-and-greet with labor leaders
WHERE: Las Vegas McCarren Airport Commissioners Lounge (5th Floor)
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 19; 12-4 p.m.
AFGE is the largest federal employee union representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia, including tens of thousands of DHS employees in Border Patrol, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Federal Protective Service, FEMA, Coast Guard and TSA.
SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees
