For Release: Friday, January 10, 2003

Gettelfinger says airport screeners deserve collective bargaining rights

Union members can do any job in America. That includes vital public safety jobs like being a police officer, a firefighter, a hospital worker – or an airport baggage screener.

James Loy, appointed by President Bush to head the Transportation Security Administration, said on January 9 that airport screeners couldn’t have a union because the fight against terrorism “demands a flexible workforce” that is “not compatible with the duty to bargain with labor unions.”

That’s just plain wrong. Union members are at work right this minute in dozens of different professions that require a response to a wide variety of emergencies.

President Bush found time for numerous photo opportunities with the unionized firefighters, police officers and emergency medical workers who were flexible enough – and brave enough – to rush into burning buildings to save lives on September 11. It’s an insult and an outrage that he won’t give the time of day to federal workers who want to exercise their basic, democratic right to join a union.