Rank-and-File Movement Wins Election in SEIU Local 36, Incumbents Refuse to Leave Office

From Peninsula Examiner
10/22/03

Unions battle for airport screeners
By Justin Nyberg

Having survived massive layoffs and the tumultuous federalization of the industry, the security screeners at San Francisco International Airport are in the middle of yet another political battle.

This time it is a power struggle between two rival unions, both of which say they have the right to represent the largest private screener force in the country.

In one corner is the Service Employees International Union Local 790, which represents 24,000 area employees and is backed by the AFL-CIO, the most politically powerful organized labor force in the country.

In the other is a small group of renegade airport screeners -- many of whom have little experience fighting for labor rights -- who have formed a new union, the United Screeners Association Local 1. The 12-member organizing group has no official spokesperson, few political connections and is scoffed at by the local AFL-CIO representatives.

But the SEIU is now taking the upstart rival more seriously. Early this year, in the first legal battle, the USA Local 1 convinced the National Labor Relations Board to strip the SEIU of its right to represent SFO's hundreds of screeners for 60 days. The board found that the SEIU no longer had the support of a majority of the workforce after 80 percent of the airport's 1,200 screeners were laid off in 2002, following the imposition of strict tests and citizenship requirements by the federal government.

Now the union is up for grabs. In the coming months, screeners will choose to be represented by the longstanding giant or the scrappy start-up. Organizers for USA Local 1 say they have collected 500 signatures, and say they are capitalizing on widespread discontent about the way the SEIU has represented the union.

"This is a group of American workers and they are saying enough is enough. We are going to represent ourselves," said USA Local 1 organizer George Valdes.

Jeff Michaels, a passenger screener, helped organize USA Local 1. With little labor experience beside what he studied as an undergraduate student, Michaels decided he had had enough with the SEIU, which he called a "completely unresponsive union."

"It became increasingly clear to me that SEIU, I don't want to call them a paper union, doesn't have the legal and political will to go up against strong employers," Michaels said. He cited an expensive healthcare package, an unpopular retirement package and a general unresponsiveness on the part of the SEIU as the primary sources of malcontent among his fellow screeners.

The battle is the latest in several years of upheaval for airport screeners at SFO. Prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, screeners worked for a handful of private security companies contracted to individual airlines. A workforce largely comprised of immigrants, the screeners made about $6 per hour and had no union representation. The SEIU organized the group and negotiated higher wages, according to Josie Mooney, Executive Director of SEIU Local 790. Currently, screeners make an average of $16.88 per hour.

"This is a workforce we raised. They made $6 an hour and now they make more than double that," Mooney said.

However, screeners were in for a turbulent ride after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The screener position was federalized and drawn under the wing of the Transportation Security Administration. Covenant Aviation Security, a private firm with no previous experience managing passenger screeners, was contracted to manage all screeners at SFO.

Shortly thereafter, while being represented by the SEIU, most of SFO's screeners were laid off, failing to meet the strict requirements mandated by the TSA. Roughly 150 of the 1,200 screeners passed the citizenship and training requirements. It translated into SEIU losing the majority of the workforce that had previously endorsed it. Covenant had to scramble to hire new screeners and never bothered to question the SEIU's claimed right to represent employees after the layoffs.

"We negotiated in good faith on that basis," said Tom Long, a vice president at Covenant.

Michaels and the USA Organizers filed a complaint on Aug. 23, 2003 with the National Labor Board complaining that the SEIU no longer had a right to represent the screeners because the original screening force that voted for representation had been decimated by the layoffs. At least 30 percent of the screeners had signed cards calling for a change in union.

For its part, the SEIU defends its work at SFO and says it has been unfairly blamed for the difficulties facing screeners.

"A lot of work was done out there at the airport to bring their pay standards up," said Rayna Lehman, community organizer for the San Mateo Central Labor Council, a group of local AFL-CIO unions. "Now you have someone stepping in after all the hard work has already been done."

Covenant officials have said they are neutral parties in the union battle, even though they included a clause in screener's initial contracts that they would be represented by the SEIU Local 790.

Copyright ©2003 Peninsula Examiner.
Published on 10/22/03.

Thanks, friend.

SEIU and their counsins that covet the federal screeners -AFGE - are all about creating noise after they've already sold you out. The role of a union is to represent workers in negotiations and grievance arbitration, and then fight like hell to keep those improvements. SEIU is okay with minor improvements at the bargaining table, and with later trying to improve things by asking, by pleading to the employer's sense of fairness. You end up paying for a contract that you later beg your employer to improve - some Service!

AFGE is even further behind. They are begging for the right to beg!

Keep in touch.