Union sues DHS to protect TSA screeners’ collective bargaining rights

The nation’s largest federal employee union on Thursday sued the Trump administration seeking to reverse the decision to revoke the collective bargaining rights of airport screeners at the Transportation Security Administration.

The American Federation of Government Employees filed the legal challenge in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Adam Stahl, a senior official performing the duties of the Transportation Security administrator. At issue is TSA and DHS’ announcement last week that management would strip TSA workers of their collective bargaining rights and unilaterally repudiate the union contract signed just last May.

When Congress first established TSA in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terror attack, the agency was given broad discretion to develop its own personnel system, outside of Title 5 of the U.S. Code and the General Schedule pay scale.

The workforce was granted abridged collective bargaining rights in 2011; the Biden administration expanded those rights in 2021 when it moved to administratively apply Title 5, and its accompanying pay system, to the agency. Prior to that decision, which delivered pay raises upwards of 30% to transportation security officers, the agency was plagued by poor morale and employee retention, fueled by poor pay and favoritism.

The lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of violating the Administrative Procedure Act’s prohibition on “arbitrary and capricious” decision-making, as well as breaching their contractual obligations under the 2024 collective bargaining agreement and in so doing, violating union members’ due process rights under the Fifth Amendment.

The union also brings a First Amendment claim, arguing that the Trump administration’s decision to revoke TSA screeners’ collective bargaining rights was in retaliation for the union’s other lawsuits against the executive branch, most notably their challenge of the mass firing of probationary workers across government. A federal judge on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction in that case, requiring agencies to reinstate tens of thousands of improperly terminated workers.

“Public statements from DHS and TSA make clear that AFGE was targeted by the Noem Determination [stripping TSA bargaining rights] and subsequent implementation by TSA: the memorandum calls out AFGE by name and claims contrary to evidence that the union ‘harms Transportation Security Officers,’” the union wrote. “[By] publicly touting the annual loss in membership dues that AFGE will face if DHS and TSA’s actions are allowed to stand, defendants send a clear message to others who dare to challenge Trump administration policies: you will pay for speaking out.”

Typically, unions have failed in efforts to seek direct judicial review of agency decisions that impact their members’ employment or curb collective bargaining rights as the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act requires such actions to first be heard through administrative bodies like the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Federal Labor Relations Authority. But because TSA workers’ Title 5-like rights were administratively granted, as opposed through the enactment of a new law, the workforce is cannot go before the FLRA.

“The 2022 determination [granting additional collective bargaining rights] also stated that because jurisdiction ‘cannot be conferred administratively,’ Chapter 71 [of Title 5’s] provisions regarding the Federal Labor Relations Authority (which includes its unfair labor practice provisions), and federal court jurisdiction were not included in the determination’s adoption of Chapter 71.”

In a statement, AFGE National President Everett Kelley vowed to protect his members’ bargaining and free speech rights.

“This attack on our members is not just an attack on AFGE or transportation security officers,” he said. “It’s an assault on the rights of every American worker. Tearing up a legally negotiated union contract is unconstitutional, retaliatory, and will make the TSA experience worse for American travelers. These attempts by the administration to silence everyday workers across this country through retaliation and intimidation will not succeed.”