Trump administration must bargain with TSA officers’ union, for now, says US judge

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By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) -A federal judge on Monday said the administration of President Donald Trump likely broke the law by stripping 50,000 transportation security officers of the ability to unionize and bargain over their working conditions.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle, Washington, blocked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from canceling a union contract covering TSA officers pending the outcome of a lawsuit by the American Federation of Government Employees and other unions.

Pechman said that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem failed to explain why she was reversing the Obama administration’s finding that unionizing would benefit TSA officers, who staff checkpoints at U.S. airports and other transportation hubs, and in turn the public they serve.

“The Noem Determination appears to have been undertaken to punish AFGE and its members because AFGE has chosen to push back against the Trump Administration’s attacks to federal employment in the courts,” wrote Pechman, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

The White House, TSA and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

AFGE, which represents about 800,000 federal government employees, praised the decision. National President Everett Kelley said “the preliminary injunction underscores the unconstitutional nature of DHS’s attack on TSA officers’ First Amendment rights … we will not back down from defending our members’ rights against unlawful union busting.”

Trump, a Republican, has moved to curb union bargaining for wide swaths of the federal workforce. A U.S. appeals court in May allowed those efforts to proceed, pausing a lower court ruling that had blocked seven agencies from canceling union contracts while it considers an appeal.

Because of the sensitive nature of their jobs, TSA officers are not governed by the civil service system and do not have the same rights to unionize and collectively bargain over working conditions as most other federal employees.

During former President Barack Obama’s administration, the TSA granted officers the ability to bargain over certain subjects. Former President Joe Biden’s administration expanded the scope of bargaining in 2021.

The agency last year reached a seven-year labor deal with AFGE, the largest federal worker union. Workers received enhanced shift trade options, increased allowance for uniforms and additional paid leave as part of the agreement.

On February 27, Noem rescinded the directives that had allowed TSA officers to unionize and directed the agency to cancel the bargaining agreement within 90 days.

Noem said the union contract guarantees benefits such as paid leave that are abused by a small number of officers and shields poor performers from being fired, burdening the entire agency.

Noem also said she had asked lawyers at DHS to adopt policies barring any future administration from granting TSA workers the right to bargain without action from Congress.

AFGE and the other unions that sued said Noem failed in her memo to provide a reasoned explanation for her decision and that TSA lacks the power to set aside the bargaining agreement.

Pechman on Monday agreed, calling Noem’s reasoning “threadbare.” She said Noem had not backed up her claims that collective bargaining threatens the safety of the transportation system and that the 2024 union contract benefits AFGE at officers’ expense.

Pechman said Noem had likely violated a federal law that governs policymaking by agencies and the unions’ rights to due process under the U.S. Constitution.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; additional reporting by David Shepardson in San Diego; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Rod Nickel, Stephen Coates and Sonali Paul)