Today, TSA Administrator David Pekoske signed a new TSA Administrator’s Determination on Collective Bargaining for Transportation Security Officers (effective December 30, 2022), and by doing so, he kept his word to the Union that he would, soon after funding was approved by Congress and signed by the President of the United States. Council 100 is grateful to TSA Administrator Pekoske for keeping his promise to the workforce, after AFGE pushed for these equity rights (pay and bargaining) over the last two decades.
As the Union reviews the new Determination, it will keep its members apprised of all future and immediate changes, interpretations, and implementations, through its various communication mediums. Further, Council 100 will be meeting with Administrator Pekoske in mid-January to discuss timelines going forward. TSA employees were rightfully ecstatic to hear that the new pay system will go into effect in July 2023, however, one aspect that has not received as much attention, yet which is equally as important, are the expanded collective bargaining rights.
As Council 100 has been reporting and reiterating throughout this process, as news developed over the last week of December regarding the Omnibus Spending Bill of 2023 (H.R. 2617), expanded collective bargaining will take this agency’s employees to a level it has not seen or known—and bring it closer to its ultimate goal of cementing these pay increases and expanded rights on a permanent basis, through law.
Today, it is a great time to be a Transportation Security Officer. Tomorrow will be even better! The future is ours, as it has always been, but we need you to join your Local AFGE Union, get vocal, get involved, and have a voice in our next contract! AFGE has never tired or wavered in its support of the workforce, but now we need you to help us light and carry this proverbial torch. We are arriving at a place we have never been, but we will need each other to solidify our place in history, because that’s what we are in the process of making.
In Solidarity,
Hydrick Thomas, President | Mac Johnson, Council Executive Vice President | Johnny Jones, Council Secretary-Treasurer | Thomas Schoregge, Region 1 V.P. | John Hubert, Region 2 V.P. | Janis Casey, Region 3 V.P. | Becky Mancha, Region 4 V.P. | Greg Biel, Region 5 V.P. | Bobby Orozco Jr., Region 6 V.P. | Joe Shuker, Region 7 V.P. | Victor Payes Martinez, Fair Practices Coordinator | Concetta Fialkowski, Women’s Coordinator | Christopher Blessing, AFGE Council 100 Attorney