TSA Union Members to Speak at Thursday Town Hall with Georgia Senator Nan Orrock

AFGE leaders to join Delta employees in highlighting need for unions, collective bargaining rights

ATLANTA, July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two member/leaders from the American Federation of Government Employees, the union for Transportation Security Officers in Atlanta and across the country, will share their struggles on working without basic protections on the job at the Atlanta Airport Solidarity Committee's Town Hall Meeting on July 15. AFGE Local 555 President Aubrey Williams and Executive Vice President Valyria Lewis (both TSOs) will speak on behalf of the union at the event, which will be moderated by Georgia State Senator Nan Orrock.

Several hundred airline workers and community supporters are expected to attend the meeting in support of collective bargaining rights at TSA and the unionization of Delta Air Lines. In addition to Williams and Lewis, workers representing the Association of Flight Attendants and the International Association of Machinists will speak on their everyday struggles and why they are demanding dignity and power in the workplace.

The three nationwide organizing campaigns comprise 100,000 workers, of which approximately 15,000 are based in Atlanta.

WHO:

Senator Nan Orrock, moderator

AFGE Local 555 President/TSO Aubrey Williams

AFGE Local 555 Executive Vice President/TSO Valyria Lewis

Delta employee Anthony Bereal

Delta employee Cecilene Clark

Delta flight attendant John Jablonski

WHAT:

Atlanta Airport Solidarity Committee Town Hall Meeting

WHEN:

Thursday, July 15; 6-7 p.m.

WHERE:

Crowne Plaza Atlanta Airport, 1325 Virginia Ave., Atlanta

TSOs in Atlanta are members of AFGE Local 555, which also includes TSOs in all of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina. AFGE is the only union to represent TSOs since the agency's inception, and currently has more than 12,000 dues-paying members in 38 AFGE TSA Locals across the country.

AFGE earlier this year filed a petition with the Federal Labor Relations Authority for exclusive union representation at TSA, and renewed its call for immediate passage of H.R. 1881, which would be a permanent, legal solution to the matter of collective bargaining rights at TSA.

AFGE is the largest federal employee union representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia, including tens of thousands of DHS employees in Border Patrol, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FEMA, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Federal Protective Service, Office of Immigration Statistics and TSA.

SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees