June 23, 2008
An Open Letter to TSA Administrator Kip Hawley
In a May 21 letter, TSA Administrator Kip Hawley declined a request by President Colleen M. Kelley to meet with NTEU to discuss employee morale and training issues.
In light of management's refusal, President Kelley has instead decided to draft a series of "open letters" to management highlighting union misgivings with such TSA workplace issues as inadequate staffing and training, substandard recertification procedures and collective bargaining rights.
PASS in the Press
Read recent news of the TSA report to Congress documenting the agency’s high attrition rates in GovExec and in Federal Times.
|
|
The first letter illuminates the union's concern over TSA's sky-high workforce attrition rates.
In it, President Kelley points to a recent TSA report provided to Congress that shows that nearly one-quarter of TSA's workforce leaves each year. The reports also shows that turnover at TSA in 2007 was 21.2 percent, up 0.3 percent from 2006, but down from 2005’s rate of 23.7 percent.
“It is quite disturbing that such a critical workforce is in a constant state of flux,” President Kelley wrote. "With roughly 8,000 of the approximately 40,000-member TSA workforce leaving each year, TSA is incurring astronomical and unnecessary costs due to this revolving door."
A Plan for Success
Read NTEU's five-point plan to enhance your workplace rights and boost morale here.
|
|
She added that the only way to bring an end to current double-digit attrition rates and boost employee morale at TSA is to end the disastrous Performance Accountability and Standards System (PASS), extend employees full collective bargaining rights and place them on the General Schedule, which covers federal employees.
"If these changes are made, TSOs will become empowered partners in the agency’s homeland security mission," Kelley wrote. "A TSA with low attrition rates and a stable workforce is in the best interest of our country."
For more information, click here or visit <www.DHSunion.org/TSA>.
2009 DHS Appropriations Bill Includes Funding for TSA Staffing
The Senate Appropriations Committee has moved forward on a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that incorporates several priority matters for NTEU—including funding for the TSA Officer workforce.
“At the current time, the TSA workforce is not adequately staffed,” President Kelley said. “The agency suffers from extremely poor morale and sky-high attrition rates which depress the number of Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) far below the level that Congress has funded. TSA must address its attrition levels and bring the number of on-board employees up to the level that Congress has authorized.”
For more information, click here or visit <http://dhsunion.org/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1293>.
Tell
a TSA Employee about NTEU’s DHS Update.
It’s free and keeps NTEU’s newest
members
informed about issues important to them.
If you’ve received this from a
friend or colleague
and would like to sign up for your own copy, click
here.
|
