12.29.2009

How to make TSA even worse? Unionize them, of course!

As Congress and the Dept of Homeland Security ponder the key question of how it can make the Transportation Security Administration any worse, it has apparently come up with a fool-proof answer:

Let's Unionize TSA workers!

I kid not. Napalotino wants to unionize them, and so does Obama's nominee to head the TSA, Erroll Southers. Republican DeMint has so far blocked the nomination until Southers gives his opinion about Unionization of TSA workers.

From Washington Examiner:
The flexibility that DeMint speaks of is crucial. After a British airliner bombing plot was uncovered in 2006, the TSA overhauled security procedures in a matter of 12 hours to deal with the threat of liquid explosives. It's difficult to imagine that kind of flexibility under ossified union rules.
From the Hill:

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has placed a hold on Southers's nomination and has said he wants answers from Southers on whether he'll support unionizing TSA workers. DeMint views unionization as a potential threat to the agency's ability to swiftly perform security upgrades at airports, and has described the failed attack in Detroit as an example of why unionization of TSA should not be allowed.

But Thompson says that the agency needs an administrator to run at full capacity.

"If TSA is to become the kind of nimble, responsive organization the American people deserve in times like this, it will need a Senate-confirmed administrator," he said. "If nothing else, the events of last week highlighted this lack of leadership."

8 comments:

Negocios Loucos said...

LET'S UNIONIZE THE ARMY AND NAVY AS WELL! F-ME!

Negocios Loucos said...

I know a woman who was proud that she spent her professional career as a union cashier at Safeway. She spent 18 years doing the same job and took pride in the fact that the store manager wanted her to do certain things but she never did because she couldn't be fired. The union wouldn't allow it. So she spent years defying her manager until she retired with sweet benefits.

Wouldn't it be great if a TSA Union slug missed a bomb because the TSA non-union boss asked him to do something he didn't want to do?

Anonymous said...

Years ago, they ran a Simpsons episode where Homer Simpson said that going on strike is un-American. If you don't like your job, just go about it in a half-assed way. With the DeMints wanting airline security to be the province of high turnover peons with zero job security and dismal wages, peons there because there's nothing else for the moment, it's an easy matter to go about it half-assed, and then BOOM! There goes an airliner. Damn those unions! Oh, the cops and the fire department are in unions and they of course refused to enter the World Trade Center because they had total job security.

Anonymous said...

I see we have some anectdotal evidence presented about how unionised workers supposedly refuse to work because of job security. Well, my own experience is that when people are paid badly and have no security at all and are not appreciated, the quality of the personnel is not good, and the work is, shall we say, uninspired. Certain people always want to cut corners and if the airline security is run by people who are shown that they are not appreciated then bad things will happen. When I see this DeMint I see this slave owner mentality to workers - that they are all layabouts who do anything to get out of an honest day's work. Everything is also about squeezing as much work out of people for the least amount of money. Slavery didn't exactly work for the South during the Civil War, they didn't win, you know.

Sic Ibid said...

Weak.

Negocios Loucos said...

Why is it that GM and Chrysler factory workers, who are the highest paid factory laborers in the world, consistently put out horrible cars according to Consumer Reports and other ratings organizations?

Unions are for weak people who need to have their diapers changed by their mommy's to feel like they are being productive. Starvation is a great motivator. You do your job or you get fired. When you are with a Union you actually don't have to do your job because you won't get fired. That's where your assumption is totally incorrect.

And let me ask you this, how much should a TSA employee be paid TO DO THEIR JOB CORRECTLY? What is the amount? Do you think instead, possibly, like in in accounting for example, you implement a system of checks and audits to ensure the work is being done correctly. Call me crazy but the determinant that a job will be done well is not the amount of pay but the system in which the worker is deployed.

Anonymous said...

I had a chance to e-mail with an old high school buddy today who lives in Idaho now (of all places). In conversation I let him know I'm headed to Florida to do a little ocean fishing this weekend and we got to typing about good ole TSA. Now my old buddy is a guy I played football with back in the day - he was a fullback and linebacker. A better athlete than the Smug Bastard so he played both sides of the line of scrimage. Anyway, my old pal also happened to be one of those fellows blessed if you get my drift. His poor long suffering wife... she was probably delighted when they were young and first married but I suspect she's gotten a little tired of "The Johnston" by now. Anyhoo, he's a delightful fellow from Vicksburg, MS and he tells me he likes to go through the full body pat down and when they are finished, he tries to go back through the line again for an additional search. Then he asks the screener (male or female matters not to him) for his or her phone number. He and his brother were both crazy SOB's.

Anonymous said...

whoops, meant to type "scrimmage" is there any chance that a spell checker can be installed on this commentary do-hicky thingy?

Nailed it!

July 5 :