Summary

Trump is revoking collective bargaining rights at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), ending union protections for thousands of airport security officers.

The Department of Homeland Security claims the move will improve efficiency and security, but unions argue it is a retaliatory attack on federal workers.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) plans to challenge the decision. TSA workers fear the rollback will worsen working conditions and retention.

The policy reverses union rights granted under Obama and expanded by Biden.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    70
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    TSA could strike and airports would be better for it… That’s a dangerous game for the admin to play.

    • SippyCup@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      1 day ago

      The way the TSA strikes is by causing massive delays for passengers going through security. The last time they did that, the security line at Atlanta international was 2 and a half hours long at times. It wound all the way back to the check in.

    • paranoid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      33
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      I think that’s part of the strategy here. “Look at this, I busted up this union and now flying is the most enjoyable it has ever been”

      Edit: another piece of this is how much money would be saved by liquidating the TSA.

      I know five or six people who work for the TSA, and every one of them are MAGA

      • metaldream@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 day ago

        That won’t happen though. They won’t be replaced with anyone, there will be massive delays instead.

        But very few people will side with the TSA on this anyway.

      • Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        2 days ago

        I know five or six people who work for the TSA, and every one of them are MAGA

        And yet it’s very likely they won’t put two and two together to figure out the sitting Republican president is responsible for their weakened union. Still, this couldn’t have happened to more deserving people.

  • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    99
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    Remember, it’s not a right if it can be taken away! Your right to collectively bargain comes from the fact that there are hundreds of you and one of him, not because he “allowed” it.

      • Noxy@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        35
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        TSA is way more like mall security than police tho.

        ACAB all the way, and TSA is little more than a hollow performance, basically security flavored LaCroix that ought to be abolished as genuinely wasteful and needlessly degrading and inconvenient to travelers.

        But I don’t really see TSA agents as cops. I’m sure the line blurs in some specific cases, but they’re not going around murdering people with impunity like cops do.

        • cogman@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          Sort of my feelings here. This isn’t like the FBI or CIA that actively go around trying to fuck people over. Airports wouldn’t function if they acted like that and politicians LOVE to fly.

          But also, the TSA is a place we need to defund and mostly dismantle. There’s no reason an airport needs so much security theater other than it makes rich people feel good. They need about as much security as a subway does (not much).

          That said, they aren’t first on my list for “defund the police”. That honor belongs to ICE.

      • Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        2 days ago

        Pretty sure you misunderstood op. They’re saying their hatred of TSA is overshadowed by their love of unions meaning they think this is bad because as the other person said, harm to one union harms all unions.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 day ago

    Paying our employees less will increase security

    You’d question the intellectual level of the person making that statement if we didn’t know they’re all just sayin whatever to excuse the inexcusable.

    Canada? Abusive partner who has been stealing from us!

    Palestine children? They’re terrorists, we should kill them before they kill us

    Transgender people? They’re pedophiles, won’t anyone think of the children?

    Immigrants? Job stealing terrorists sent by Isis, we must stop them!

    All hail and glory to king elmo cheeto!

  • sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    52
    ·
    2 days ago

    Pardon my ignorance, but how does this even work? Like, don’t they just walk off the job collectively until someone is willing to negotiate with them?

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      58
      ·
      2 days ago

      That’s how unions are supposed to work. It’s really the only bargaining chip workers have, at least until we can all be 100% replaced by ai and robots…

        • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          15
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          We’re probably multiple centuries from robot labor replacing a meaningful amount of human labor.

          Modern “AI” can’t even run a call center, it’s not replacing real jobs anytime soon, despite how egar marketing teams are to gaslight C-Suite into paying for it.

    • Match!!@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      31
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Americans are so corporatized that they mistakenly think the power of unions comes from the government

        • med@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 day ago

          And that’s exactly why they’re in some part right. If you have enough money to buy scabs, and protection for the scabs, the union relies on the government making that illegal.

          It’s the break down of the pact. At a small scale anyway - obviously the longer it goes on and the further they go with the busting attempts, the more union actions will cause ripples in other industries, and solidarity movements. They can’t buy protection everywhere, and if they try, it’s escalation all the way to the bloodshed that wrote the pact in the first place.

    • JPAKx4@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      2 days ago

      The “protection” is the government not firing people for collective bargaining or collective actions. This is similar to when Reagan fired a bunch of ATC strikers and ever since then we’ve had a massive shortage of ATC personnel.

    • boydster@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      Let’s hope so and be vocal about our support for the union that this administration is trying to crush before our eyes.

  • P1k1e@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    35
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 days ago

    Hang on, I’m probably crazy but Im seeing a trend here… Are they hoping for another 9/11? Cuz I could totally see them trying for another 9/11. TSA ain’t even that effective so it’s not really about them existing or not, but more about the idea, that it could happen again

  • DevCat@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    46
    ·
    2 days ago

    Okay, so he revoked the collective bargaining rights. He didn’t revoke the ability to go out on strike, though. It just won’t be an organized strike.

    Weren’t strikes the compromise to the other option, namely dragging the owners out of the factory and beating them in the streets? Maybe they just want to go back to the original system.

  • 0ndead@infosec.pub
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    2 days ago

    The TSA never provided any tangible increase in airport security. DOGE could have started here.

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, planes have been falling out of the sky pretty regularly lately without assistance from terrorists.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    2 days ago

    Trump was open about his hatred for unions and worker rights leading up to the election and working Americans still showed up and made him president.

    I can’t even blame this one on Trump. For once he was actually honest about his intentions. This is all on stupid Americans.

  • MolecularCactus1324@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    2 days ago

    How does anyone control one’s ability to collectively bargain. Seems like a demand the group makes and doesn’t require permission for.

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      How has he been given or taken this much power?

      Well.

      One of Congress’ jobs is to reign in the power of the president and make sure the branches of government are balanced.

      Congress is controlled by Republicans.

      Republicans are spineless cowards.

      They’ve given up their Congressional powers to their felon rapist traitor daddy.

      You are literally witnessing the collapse of the U.S. federal government to an authoritarian. Because it can, in fact, happen here.

    • motor_spirit@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      2 days ago

      so the orange skin bag with the tumbleweed toupee is the dude ‘in charge’, but his dom is actually the south african nazi so he holds the reins; nazi dom was given the role because he has money and no morals, which aligns with republican ‘values’ of being spineless, unintelligent, and greedy