The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that it was ending its collective bargaining agreement with workers in the Transportation Security Administration, claiming that the union contract was imperiling the safety of travelers.
The move was the latest step by President Trump’s administration to undermine labor protections for federal workers, and prompted an outraged response from the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents some 47,000 at the T.S.A., along with hundreds of thousands of other federal workers. The union vowed to fight the action, saying that it had little do with safety and appeared to be illegal.
The move could lay the groundwork for the government to fire T.S.A. workers and perhaps even privatize the agency, according to labor experts. Project 2025, a conservative policy playbook that Mr. Trump distanced himself from during the presidential campaign but has since followed, called for privatizing the T.S.A.
The T.S.A., which has about 50,000 workers in the field and makes up about a quarter of the Homeland Security Department’s work force, is tasked with securing the nation’s airports, highways and passenger rail system. It was created in 2002 in response to the Sept. 11 attacks and folded into the Homeland Security Department in 2003.
In a statement on Friday, the Homeland Security Department claimed that a “select few poor performers” in the T.S.A. were exploiting benefits and suggested that too many employees were devoting time to union matters rather than security work. “Eliminating collective bargaining removes bureaucratic hurdles,” the statement said, adding that the union had “constrained” efforts to keep Americans safe.
Everett Kelley, the union’s president, said in a statement that “this action has nothing to do with efficiency, safety or homeland security.”
“This is merely a pretext for attacking the rights of regular working Americans across the country because they happen to belong to a union,” he added.
The union’s lawyers were assessing their legal options, according to Brittany Holder, a union spokeswoman.
Rebecca Givan, a professor of labor studies at Rutgers University, said the move appeared to be without precedent by a federal agency and would likely be “tied up in courts.” But she said it would send a message that would be felt beyond the T.S.A.
“For the government to say, ‘We no longer abide by legally binding contracts’ creates uncertainty and insecurity across the work force,” Ms. Givan said.
Last week, T.S.A. workers were told that they needed to respond to emails asking them to list five work accomplishments from the previous week, part of Elon Musk’s request across federal agencies for such lists from employees. The request came as T.S.A. workers headed into one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
In May of last year, the Biden administration reached a seven-year collective bargaining agreement with the T.S.A. workers’ union that enhanced bereavement leave and made it easier for employees to take unscheduled leave. The T.S.A. said the agreement brought the agency’s contract more in line with those of other federal agencies. The union said T.S.A. workers had long been denied protections offered to most federal workers.
It was the first comprehensive collective bargaining contract secured by T.S.A. workers, said John Logan, a professor of labor studies at San Francisco State University.
Mr. Logan said the Trump administration’s effort to withdraw the agreement came as part of a broader statement to agencies that “they can ignore things that we previously thought were legally binding.”
“It’s really a big deal,” he said.