The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is moving ahead with plans to tear up the union contract covering tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers, despite a federal court order that blocked an earlier attempt to do so. The decision sets up a fresh legal battle over collective bargaining rights for front-line airport screeners at a time when Congress is trying to restore broader protections for federal workers.
In a notice to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents about 47,000 TSA officers, the agency said it will implement a new “labor framework” on January 11, 2026. The move would invalidate the seven-year collective bargaining agreement that took effect in 2024 and halt payroll deductions for union dues, returning TSA to its early-2000s model with no formal union representation for screeners.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem justified the change in a September 2025 determination that has not been publicly released in full but is summarized in agency communications. TSA says collective bargaining is “incompatible” with its national security mission and argues that contract negotiations and union administration impose “wasteful” costs and distract officers from security duties. The department says the new framework will put the focus back on “workforce readiness, resource allocation and mission focus” while relying on internal policies to handle grievances and workplace issues.
AFGE calls the decision illegal retaliation and vows to challenge it in court. The union notes that in June 2025 a federal judge in Washington state issued a preliminary injunction blocking DHS from terminating the same 2024 contract, finding that Noem’s earlier March 2025 determination appeared aimed at “punishing” AFGE for fighting Trump administration policies in court. That case, brought by AFGE and allied unions, is scheduled for trial in September 2026.
“Secretary Noem’s decision to rip up the union contract for 47,000 TSA officers is an illegal act of retaliatory union-busting that should cause concern for every person who steps foot in an airport,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said, arguing that union protections helped stabilize a workforce once plagued by high attrition and low morale. Union leaders warn that removing bargaining rights could drive experienced officers out of the TSA.
The fight over the TSA’s contract comes as Congress debates federal labor rights more broadly. On December 11, 2025, the House passed the Protect America’s Workforce Act, a bipartisan bill that would overturn a Trump executive order barring unions at more than 40 federal agencies and prevent departments from unilaterally canceling existing contracts. The bill’s fate in the Senate is uncertain, but if enacted it would directly conflict with the new DHS framework for TSA.
TSA officers have long operated under a different personnel system than most federal workers. The agency granted limited collective bargaining in 2011 and expanded those rights in 2022, bringing them closer to the protections enjoyed by other civil servants, even though federal law still bars bargaining over pay and prohibits strikes.
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