AFGE, TSA sign first contract

The country’s largest union representing federal government workers has signed off on the first collective bargaining agreement for officers at the Transportation Security Administration.

At a ceremony at TSA’s headquarters in Arlington, VA, on Friday, the American Federation of Government Employees made official the agreement TSA employees ratified in a 17,326-1,774 vote earlier in November. The three-year CBA will take effect Dec. 9 and includes a new leave system, procedures for shift bidding and trading, and an expanded uniform allowance.

“This agreement means better working conditions, fair evaluation practices and safer workplaces,” AFGE President J. David Cox said in a statement

After winning the right to represent TSA in June 2011, AFGE began negotiating the agreement with the agency in January 2012, and finished in August. The signing concludes a decadelong campaign by AFGE to represent the 45,000 security officers currently working at TSA.