Union's War of Words

Looks like the National Treasury Employees Union and the American Federation of Government Employees are back in a state of open warfare. As GovExec's Jon Marino reported yesterday, AFGE chose to respond to NTEU's announcement that it had chartered a chapter of Transportation Security Administration employees by releasing a statement during NTEU's conference call saying that AFGE has been fighting for TSA workers ever since the agency was created five years ago. And it wasn't just any statement. Here's a sampling of the phrases employed by the AFGE folks to characterize NTEU's move:

• "amusing and appalling"
• "imitation is flattering"
• "they have been nowhere in sight"
• "NTEU should be ashamed"
• "demeaning and offensive"
• "pitiful farce"