DeMint Decries Union Obstruction in TSA

30 Dec, 2009 by Warner Todd Huston

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The Democrats are trying to paint the GOP as “obstructionists” for blocking the appointment of Obama’s choice of Erroll Southers to head up the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Democrats are claiming that by blocking the closure of debate on Southers the GOP is trying to obstruct “tighter security at airports.”

But there is an ulterior motive in play for the Democrats, naturally. And, again naturally, it is an effort by Democrats to hand a victory to unions. One of the things that Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) is trying to stave off is the unionization of our airport security personnel as the Democrats are trying to slide this by the American people in the guise of “security.”

DeMint brought this up in an appearance on CNN on Dec. 29. When asked why he is putting up a protest about Souther DeMint noted that Obama waited 8 months to appoint someone to fill this spot then wanted the appointment to sail through with no debate.

But DeMint also warned about the stealth unionization that Obama is trying to slide past the American people.

Transcript of the relevant section:

CNN: Is there anything that you are going to do to counter this motion he’s going to file to cut off debate?

Jim DeMint: I think that the American people should be aware that the priority of the Administration is to submit our airport security to collective bargaining even though that’s been prohibited since the agency was formed. The reason it’s prohibited is the same reason for the CIA, the Secret Service, the FBI, the Coast Guard… is there’s a constant need to adjust and to be flexible to sue imagination to change things. We cannot ask a third party union boss whether or not we can move a screener from one station to another. That’s what collective bargaining does.

DeMint is arguing that unionism would hamper the ability of the federal government to quickly and efficiently react to the forever changing landscape of airport security. DeMint is 100% right. If the government has to go through layer after layer of union rules, find itself encountering union obstruction, and the threat of union actions against it every time it finds it necessary to deal with the changing security situation in order to stop terrorism, we will all find ourselves with an even more dangerous travel situation than we now have. As DeMint notes, that is why collective bargaining has been prohibited in the first place.

But, in keeping with Obama’s desire to give freebies to unions and his disinterest in our national security, he’s trying to push the TSA to be opened up for unionization. Once again with this Administration the needs of unions takes precedence over the safety and success of the American people.

(Cross posted at TheUnionLabelBlog.com)