Trump’s War on Public Sector Unionism
By 
Harold Meyerson on Trump’s outright war on public sector unions:
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order giving collective-bargaining rights to federal employees, though they were not permitted to strike, nor, as a result of the 2018 Supreme Court Janus decision, are they compelled to pay dues to their union. In the more than half a century since Kennedy signed that order, the vast majority of federal employees have voted to form unions and have won enforceable contracts with the government. Nor has the government ever negated a contract it had signed—until last Friday.
On Friday, Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, told the roughly 45,000 airport security screeners (of both passengers and their luggage) who work for the Transportation Security Administration that it would no longer honor its contract with their union, which the government signed last year and was to be in effect until 2031. That contract gave the nation’s airport screeners the right to parental, sick, and bereavement leave, and also raised their wages to levels comparable to the wages of other federal employees with similar jobs.
One of the ostensible reasons Homeland Security gave for its going back on its word is that the 193 security screeners are on leave to the union to represent the screeners when they have issues on the job. The vast majority of those union reps work in the field, covering the 430 U.S. airports where federal screeners are employed. Somehow, having 193 worker representatives covering work issues at 430 vitally important worksites doesn’t strike me as excessive, much less grounds for unilaterally abrogating a contract that the government is legally obligated to honor.
The simple fact is that the Republican Party and the employers who it really represents absolutely loathe worker power:
But even if there are fewer unions left for them to bust, most corporate leaders and major investors, I’d surmise, approve of Trump’s nullifying the contract with security screeners. In an article that The New York Times ran last week, financier Steven Rattner noted with some alarm that many of his Wall Street peers were privately pleased at Trump’s performance, though most were not in a position to say so publicly. They’re enamored, Rattner reported, of his deregulation of business, of his war on woke, and of his proposed renewal of massive tax cuts for the rich. I’d be surprised if they’re not now chortling over his stripping union rights and benefits away from workers.
After all, it was Wall Street that demanded that American corporations move production to countries where labor costs were way lower than they were here, so profits and share values would rise. For that matter, Wall Street has never come to terms with a unionized workforce, instead pressuring companies—if the companies needed pressure—to hike their profits, dividends, and share buybacks at workers’ expense.
Trump’s Republicans are now crowing about their success at winning working-class votes. Like cutting Medicaid benefits and eligibility, flagrant union busting, negating an agreement with workers whose work is visible to all, might just play poorly with some of the party’s newfound working-class supporters. Trump’s nullification of the screeners’ contract may not be headline news, and may not be reported at all on Fox “News” or right-wing social media. But if some of those screeners walked off the job—at no small risk to their livelihoods, but telling the news media how Trump had gone back on the government’s agreement with them—America would be compelled to take notice.
A walkout would technically be illegal, but there are many ways to have walkouts. A few workers here and there get “sick,” as one example, just enough to demonstrate power, and we go from there. Moreover, who would keep the airports open? These workers have a tremendous amount of power. Any of the unions who work in the airports can effectively shut down the entire airline industry at any time. This was of course the rationale behind the 1981 PATCO strike that Reagan busted. But…there are a few differences here. First, what Trump just did is actually far worse than Reagan firing the air traffic controllers. PATCO was striking for things such as free flights to Europe. They acted in outright hostility to other airline unions too. They simply didn’t care what anyone thought about their actions. Reagan way overreacted of course. But the AFGE did nothing wrong here at all. They simply have fought for their members’ jobs. Second, the one thing these rich people care about is flying. If they can’t fly around in their private jets everywhere, they will fold like a cheap card. That’s what happened with the government shutdown during the first Trump administration. A few traffic controllers didn’t show up, flights got delayed, the rich were inconvenienced, and they caved immediately. Workers got paid and we went back to normal. Third, if Trump (and President Musk really) fired all the TSA workers, who replaces them? This is not 1981. We are not yet in a recession with high unemployment, though Trump is trying. Is Trump going to mobilize the military here? Maybe he would, I don’t know, but they aren’t trained for that, it would pressure the entire system, and either people would start getting shot on planes once people realized they could sneak guns in, security lines would go out the door and onto the streets, or more likely, both. That is real pressure on Trump.
I hope the unions are working out plans to use their power.