no union for federal airport security workers

Do you remember all the firemen, police, and EMT’s that died at the World Trade Center? Some of them still running up the stairs trying to rescue people.

Union workers, every one of them.

Lawmakers drop union provision in 9-11 bill
By Thomas Ferraro
7/9/07
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070709/pl_nm/usa_security_unions_dc_1

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers agreed on Monday to drop efforts to extend union protection to about 45,000 federal airport security workers as part of stalled legislation to guard against another September 11-type attack.

As a result, Democrats and Republicans expressed hope the Senate and the House of Representatives could now reach agreement on a final bill to send to President George W. Bush to sign into law. Organized labor voiced disappointment at the decision.

The overall legislation, passed by the Senate and House, would implement many of the recommendations of the bipartisan commission created after the September 11 attacks, and impose some new ones.

It would better enable state and local governments to share information with federal authorities, upgrade communication systems and provide grants to help high-risk areas.

Bush had threatened to veto the legislation because of a union provision, which he said would curb flexibility at the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and undermine traveler safety.

Labor unions, which helped Democrats win control of Congress last year, disagreed and argued that airport screeners deserved the same union protection enjoyed by many federal employees.

But backers could not clear procedural hurdles to get the legislation to a House-Senate conference to iron out differences.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid received unanimous consent from colleagues for such a conference after saying he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to drop the provision.

Bill Samuel, legislative director at the AFL-CIO, the country's largest labor federation, voiced disappointment that the union provision was dropped and blamed Republicans.

"These are fundamental rights that all workers should enjoy," Samuel said. "They (Republicans) trumped this up to make it an issue that they think will excite their base."

Samuel expressed hope that Democrats would find another way to provide union protection to airport workers. But there was no immediate indication they would do so.