Union sues TSA over screener’s unionization discussions

The American Federation of Government Employees is suing the Transportation Security Administration for disciplining a security screener at Pittsburgh International Airport for talking about forming a union.

In the lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal district court, AFGE accuses TSA and Bobbe Farren, a screener supervisor, of violating the First Amendment rights of Frederick Schwartz when she issued him a written disciplinary warning for discussing union activities while Schwartz was on duty.

According to AFGE officials, Schwartz believed he was off-duty when he initiated the union discussion. Employees are prohibited from discussing union representation while they are working.

"At the end of a shift meeting, the supervisor announced 'you are dismissed,' and it was five minutes before the end of the shift," said Gony Frieder, staff counsel for AFGE TSA Local No. 1. "Mr. Schwartz, understanding that they were on break, said 'I have union applications if anyone is interested.' The next day he was given a written warning. We had no choice but to file suit, and it's unfortunate because we are talking about five minutes," Frieder said.

According to Freider, the warning places Schwartz in a precarious position because of TSA's plans to shed as many as 6,000 screener jobs by Sept. 30, through attrition, transfers and the use of performance evaluations. "Some people may look at this and say 'It's just a written warning, it's not a big deal,' but in TSA it is big deal because it opens him up for termination as part of the reduction-in-force," Frieder said.

The lawsuit asks that the agency remove the warning from Schwartz's personnel file and protect him from retaliation.

On Thursday TSA spokesman Brian Turmail said he could not comment on pending litigation, but he stressed that the agency is not opposed to its employees joining the union.

"TSA has, for some time now, been supportive of our screeners being able to make the choice of whatever membership organization that they might care to join, be it the Elks Club or a modeling club," Turmail said. "We are very supportive of our employees participating in whatever they want to do in their free time."

However, Turmail explained, the agency would not engage in collective bargaining with employee unions. According to TSA Administrator James Loy, the law creating the agency gives him the discretion to prohibit collective bargaining.

AFGE officials have spent the past several months organizing the security screeners, despite Loy's stance on collective bargaining. The union has several petitions pending with the Federal Labor Relations Authority asking for permission to represent TSA employees.