To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. NEBRASKA AVENUE conditions of employment. Bills granting such rights had passed both the House and Senate that year, but died in conference. Hawley told a Senate panel at the time that “there will be a serious negative security impact” if the bargaining rights are pursued. “At the end of the day, this issue is not about collective bargaining,” Hawley said. “It is about having a human resources system that provides for a flexible, agile workforce that can rapidly deploy and respond throughout our transportation system to counter the terrorist threat.” Speaking before Congress in 2007, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), now ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, reminded fellow members why TSA workers—now about 48,000 strong—weren’t given bargaining rights at the outset of TSA’s founding. In fact, there was a debate from the beginning whether workers should even be federalized— because of flexibility concerns. “We had a bipartisan agreement when we created TSA that we wouldn’t do that [grant bargaining rights] and put us at risk,” he charged. In April: Alan Bersin was named DHS assistant secretary for international affairs and special representative for border affairs. … Philip Mudd was nominated to be under secretary for Intelligence and Analysis and Bart Johnson was named principal deputy under secretary. … David Heyman was nominated to be DHS assistant secretary for policy and Arif Alikhan was appointed assistant secretary for policy development. … TSA appointed Randy Parsons federal security director for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, John Daly Jr. federal security director for the Orlando and Sanford Airports and Kristin Lee assistant administrator of the office of strategic communications and public affairs. … Robert (Randy) Beers was nominated as under secretary for national protection and programs at DHS. …At DoD, Paul Stockton was nominated as the assistant secretary for homeland defense and America’s security affairs. security in our airports, TSA workers need to have whistleblower protections and collective bargaining rights to be able to report security concerns without fear of losing their jobs.” As of press time, sources close to Thompson’s committee said there were plans to introduce a bill that would grant those rights to the TSOs, while in the Senate, Democratic sources acknowledged that pro-union forces had gained footing in the last election and that some sort of movement on bargaining rights was likely. “A lot of DHS units have collective bargaining rights and have operated well,” said one Democratic aide. “Many workers across the federal government have collective bargaining rights and have performed homeland security functions. There is no tension with national security and collective bargaining rights, in my view.” For their part, Republicans on the key homeland security committees with oversight in this area were noncommittal about the prospect of another congressional fight over unions and told Homeland Security Today they preferred to let Napolitano and their counterparts in Congress make the first move before commenting. thing has happened … they talk about first responders. And when they talk about first responders, they talk about firefighters and emergency personnel such as yourselves,” she said. Napolitano pledged to fight for the key first responder grants, which include “fire grants,” or the Assistance to Firefighter Grants, of which $565 million was doled out to the states for fiscal year 2009, and the SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant, for which $210 million was allocated this year. She also pointed out there was another $210 million set aside in the federal stimulus package signed in February “specifically devoted to firefighter assistance grants.” Meanwhile, Kelley said NTEU is eager to advance its agenda for the Customs and Border Protection Officers it represents, too. That would include an increase in staffing. “I’ve already seen a real change in tone in the administration and in Congress,” she insisted. “A healthy respect for federal employees and what they do.” David Stone, a retired admiral who served previous to Hawley as TSA administrator under the Bush administration, said now is the time for reasonable compromise between the two sides. “The new administration should be open to a collective bargaining agreement,” he said, “if indeed a thoughtful mechanism can be developed that maintains our security while at the same time ensuring a future TSA organization in which those that are performing vital screening functions are in return provided the world class working conditions and benefits they rightly deserve.” HST DHS ROSTER Different perspective But Napolitano and President Barack Obama clearly feel differently. In March, Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee that she had asked department lawyers if she had the authority to grant the bargaining rights to TSA workers herself. Obama had campaigned in favor of the issue before his election. In an October letter to John Gage, president of AFGE, Obama said he was not only in favor of bargaining rights but also supported re-examining whether the TSOs should be put on the General Schedule pay scale with the rest of the federal government. When TSA was created, workers were put on the Performance Accountability and Standards System, which Obama and the unions say is “flawed.” Rep. Bennie Thompson, (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, has said these issues— including whistleblower protections—will receive priority in the 111th Congress. “If the department is truly striving for a unified culture, it makes sense for everyone to operate under the same system,” he said. “As the frontline of America’s Sea change DHS officials declined to talk about the broader implications of a pro-labor shift in the department for this story, but if remarks made by Napolitano to the firefighters’ union in March were any indication, they will at least get that seat at the table. “You know, actually, in some ways you are the face of homeland security, because when you ask people around the country who do they expect to show up if some- 16 June 2009 | www.HSToday.us This month’s issue is now available online at…