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 four unions challenging the move.
The lawsuit claims the Trump administration ended collective bargaining for TSA officers, who staff checkpoints at U.S. airports and other transportation hubs, as retaliation against the unions for suing over administration policies.
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 the American Federation of Government Employees, 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On February 27, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem rescinded the directives that had allowed TSA officers to unionize and directed the agency to cancel the bargaining agreement within 90 days.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.
The other plaintiffs include a Washington-based AFGE affiliate that represents TSA officers and unions for flight attendants and airport workers. Those unions say their members rely on TSA officers to keep them safe while working.
Pechman is an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Rod Nickel)
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