Government Unions Build Ranks, Court TSA for Membership

I travel a LOT for business (my real job) a lot of it is by air.  The TSA employees are for the most part professional and just following the security show mandated from those above.  Like any government agency there is definite waste. I am sure you too have gone through airport security to see numerous blue-shirted TSA personnel standing around chatting, or on break.

With the Republicans now in charge of the House and still promising to make cuts, government unions seem to be panicking.  Several airports including Kansas City have chosen to go with contract security screeners rather than the government type.  The use of contractors was allowed under the law when the TSA was setup after 9/11.  More airports seem to be considering this due to cost savings and convenience.  Airports are much more flexible in staffing and expenses are greatly reduced.  According to FoxNews "the overall labor union membership fell from 12.3 to 11.9 percent of the working population."  This is bad news for organizations that depend upon dues to pay the bloated salaries of those at the top.

This latest move to pursue the non-union TSA screeners is a last-ditch effort to preserve their numbers.  My prediction is that TSA Administrator John Pistole will find a way (with the help of Republicans in congress) to put a stop to this. Congress needs to step up and also help stop this madness.  We are supposed to be cutting spending not increasing it.  Unions ALWAYS result in two things:  higher costs, and less flexibility.

If the TSA screeners are allowed to unionize I call upon congress to eliminate the organization and go with contract screeners.  Save us the money and the hassle of more bureaucratic nonsense.