If guards organize, the terrorists win.

by Dollars & Sense

The Associated Press reports today that "Bush and his Senate allies will kill an antiterror bill if Congress sends it to the White House with a provision to let airport screeners unionize, the White House and 36 Republicans said yesterday."

Bush et al's argument is that unionized TSA screeners would pose a threat to national security. Once unionized screeners would presumably get better pay, benefits, and job security—all those things unions are famous for helping workers win—than they have now. So I'm not really seeing the connection—in fact, I'd be tempted to say that, if we're going to have screeners at all, the greater risk comes from them being less satisfied with their jobs.

And it's not like this is even dirty politics, like Republicans' attempt last session to couple a minimum wage increase with cuts to the estate tax. Here the two issues—national security and the rights of the people who are, rightly or wrongly, delegated to protect it—seem very strongly connected indeed.

And it's not like the right to organize has undermined security in any other part of Homeland Security. Said John Gage, president of American Federation of Government Employees, "Denying these people rights that everyone else has in Homeland Security is not based on any rational reason."

Sounds about usual for the Bush administration.

See Stephen Barr's coverage in the Washington Post: Effort to Give TSA Screeners Union Rights Advances

Labels: labor, national security, unions

 

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2/28/2007 07:00:00 PM