Labor union files suit to represent baggage screeners

The American Federation of Government Employees is going to court in an attempt to win collective bargaining rights for 56,000 federal baggage screeners at the Transportation Security Administration.

AFGE filed a lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging the Bush administration does not have the authority to prevent baggage screeners from joining a union. On Thursday, TSA administrator James Loy announced that screeners would not be allowed to unionize for national security reasons.

Loy said the law creating TSA-the 2001 Aviation and Transportation Security Act-gives him the discretion to prohibit collective bargaining. But AFGE disagrees.

"AFGE is going to vigorously fight on behalf of the 56,000 airport screeners throughout the U.S. to overturn this unlawful decision by Bush administration officials," said AFGE President Bobby Harnage on Friday.