The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Friday that it is terminating the collective bargaining agreement with the union representing countless frontline employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The TSA union has decried this move as an “unprovoked attack.”
In its announcement, DHS criticized the union — which represents employees responsible for screening airline passengers — asserting that TSA employs more personnel involved in union issues than those “performing screening functions at 86% of our airports.”
“This action is aimed at enhancing the effectiveness and modernization of the workforce across the nation’s transportation networks,” Homeland Security stated. “TSA is reaffirming its commitment to providing an efficient and secure travel experience for Americans.”
The decision has met criticism from the Association of Flight Attendants and Democratic lawmakers, who argue that it will compromise flight safety. This move follows last year’s push to increase TSA workers’ compensation, which has historically lagged behind that of other federal employees.
In May 2024, then TSA Administrator David Pekoske signed the collective bargaining agreement, crediting recent pay increases for improvements in employee retention and morale, areas where the TSA has faced difficulties.
“Negating [TSA workers’] legally binding collective bargaining agreement serves no rationale — it will only lower morale and impair the workforce,” remarked Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi and ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security, in a statement on Friday.
DHS stated that low-performing individuals were permitted to remain in their roles and that the agreement was obstructing the organization’s ability “to protect our transportation systems and ensure the safety of Americans” — an assessment that encountered immediate opposition from Thompson and the union.
The Association of Flight Attendants declared the decision is “detrimental to aviation security and everyone who relies on safe travel,” adding that it would revert to “the days of lowest cost security, resulting in the highest costs for our nation.”
Impact on 47,000 TSA Workers
The American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing TSA personnel, stated that the order would strip collective bargaining rights from approximately 47,000 Transportation Security Officers (TSOs). These individuals are tasked with maintaining safety at airports nationwide by ensuring that hundreds of thousands of daily passengers do not carry weapons or explosives into secure areas.
The union claimed that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the Trump administration were infringing on workers’ right to unionize. It also asserted that the justifications provided by the Republican administration for this decision — particularly the criticisms of union activities — were “entirely unfounded.”
Instead, the union claimed that the move was retaliation for its broader initiatives opposing various decisions made by the Trump administration impacting federal workers.
AFGE represents roughly 800,000 federal employees in Washington, D.C., and throughout the nation, and it has been vigorously contesting many of the administration’s measures, including the dismissal of probationary staff and cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
“Our union has been at the forefront of challenging this administration’s unlawful actions targeting federal workers in both legal and public arenas,” the union stated. “Now our TSA officers are bearing the consequences of this apparent retaliatory action.”
The termination of the collective bargaining agreement follows the ousting of Pekoske by the Trump administration on his first day in office. Currently, TSA lacks an administrator or deputy administrator.
In a message to staff, acting TSA Administrator Adam Stahl noted that Noem concluded the decision to revoke officers’ collective bargaining rights to align with the Trump administration’s “vision of maximizing government productivity and efficiency and ensuring that our workforce can respond promptly and effectively to evolving threats.”
“By eliminating the constraints imposed by collective bargaining, TSOs will have increased flexibility and responsiveness, thereby ensuring the utmost level of security and efficiency in safeguarding the American public,” wrote Stahl. “This determination is made with the welfare of TSOs in mind, aiming for employee inclusivity and reinstating meritocracy within the workforce.”
Stahl indicated that the agency “will be instituting alternative methods” to address employee concerns and grievances “in a fair and transparent manner.”
“Anti-union Talking Points”
Rep. Thompson rebuked the DHS press release, asserting that the department employed “patently incorrect anti-union rhetoric.” He contended that the true objective was to “diminish” the workforce so “they can reshape it according to Project 2025.”
“Attempting to invalidate their legally binding collective bargaining agreement makes no sense — it will only harm morale and weaken the workforce,” Thompson maintained. “Since the Biden Administration granted pay raises and established a new collective bargaining contract, TSA’s attrition rates have dropped significantly.”
Project 2025 represents the conservative governing agenda that Trump insisted, throughout the 2024 campaign, was not part of his priorities. This initiative aims to abolish the TSA union immediately and, ultimately, privatize the entire agency.
The TSA was established subsequent to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when hijackers smuggled knives and box cutters through security to wield as weapons, commandeering four planes that were crashed into the Pentagon, World Trade Center towers, and a Pennsylvania field. The TSA’s mandate, at inception in November 2001, was to avert similar attacks in the future.
Since then, air travel has undergone a profound transformation, with comprehensive screening procedures for passengers and their luggage at airports and passenger information typically submitted to TSA in advance to streamline screening. The agency has increasingly deployed facial recognition technologies to scan passengers at checkpoints, drawing criticism from various Congressional members.
