AFGE'S MINORITY-UNION CAMPAIGN AND THE LARGEST U.S. ORGANIZING VICTORY IN DECADES: TSA WORKERS' JOURNEY FOR RIGHTS AND UNION REPRESENTATION

Abstract

It has been over a decade since Juravich and Bronfenbrenner published their findings on public sector certification elections and employer opposition—in which they warned public sector unions to “prepare for the worst.” Since then, public sector unions have faced unprecedented attacks at the federal, state, county, and municipal levels. In 2001, responding to the tragic events of September 11, the Bush Administration created a new federal agency—the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)—with the intent of denying collective bargaining rights to the 44,000 workers it would soon employ. In March 2011, the Wisconsin State Senate successfully gutted the collective bargaining rights of the state's workforce. Illinois, Idaho, Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee have all mounted similar assaults on the rights of public sector workers. Unions seeking to combat this disturbing trend may find hope in the recent organizing victory waged by the American Federation of Government Employees on behalf of worker rights at TSA. This article has three goals. First, it means to summarize the 9-year organizing campaign that culminated in June 2011 with the largest union victory in the history of the federal sector—and the largest for any U.S. union in 70 years. Second, it seeks to examine current thinking about the reasons workers in the U.S. join unions. Finally, it hopes to share a few of the lessons learned from a nontraditional organizing campaign about new ways to organize and win.