Federalization of Airport Workers and Beyond
By Lillian Galedo

The federalization of airport security screeners’ jobs has created much confusion and anxiety at San Francisco Bay Area airports where there are approximately 2000 screeners. The screeners themselves are very unclear on its impact, not having access to accurate information. A majority of the security-related workers in the three Bay Area airports are non-citizens and will suffer job layoffs as soon as September of this year. Federalization of 425 U.S. airports is to be completed by November 19.

If the Baltimore experience is any indication, many citizens will also lose jobs. All citizen screeners must re-apply for their jobs under the Aviation and Transportation Security Act’s (ATSA) new guidelines. In Baltimore, only 40 per cent of screeners survived the re-hiring process. Baltimore was the first airport where the new federalization guidelines were implemented. The face of screeners there changed after federalization; there are many more whites than before 9/11.

Community-Labor Coalition

Filipinos for Affirmative Action belongs to a larger collaborative including the Labor Councils of San Mateo, San Francisco and Alameda Counties, SEIU Local 790, and two other community-based organizations, the Philip Vera Cruz Justice Project from San José and the Pilipino Bayanihan Resource Center from Daly City. The reason three Filipino organizations are involved is the significant impact the ATSA is having on the Bay Area Filipino community. Before September 11, 60% of airport screeners at the Oakland and San Jose airports were Filipinos, 80% at San Francisco.

San Francisco is the only unionized airport of the three. Organizing in Oakland and San Jose has been without the benefit of union support. We have to negotiate access to the airport workers. Oakland has been easier, but in San Jose we have not yet won permission to talk to the workers on-site.

The San Francisco Airport is one of five airports that received a two-year waiver from federalization. This means that a private company, with government oversight, will continue to manage airport screening. It is likely that the SFO bargaining unit will remain intact and the private contractor will have to negotiate with Local 790.

Job Federalization Beyond Airports?

The root of the problem for airport screeners is the citizenship requirement. The immigrant rights movement needs to pay attention as citizenship requirement could be expanded to other job categories – especially if the hysteria worsens. This would impact the labor rights of other non-citizens.

SEIU 790 led the charge against the citizenship requirement with a lawsuit filed by ACLU on their behalf. But since the lawsuit, little has been done to fight the citizenship requirement. Only LION (Labor Immigrant Organizing Network), a local S.F. Bay Area labor coalition, has spoken out; at present there is no active campaign. The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement’s national conference at the end of July will vote to take it as a national campaign.

Lillian Galedo is the Executive Director of Filipinos for Affirmative Action, based in Oakland, CA.