Judge grants preliminary injunction to protect collective bargaining agreement for TSA workers

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Source: AP

Updated 7:05 PM EDT, June 2, 2025


SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge on Monday granted a preliminary injunction to stop Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from killing a collective bargaining agreement for Transportation Safety Administration workers.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman of Seattle said in her order that an injunction is needed to preserve the rights and benefits that TSA workers have enjoyed for years while being represented by the American Federation of Government Employees.

In their lawsuit, Pechman said, the union has shown that Noem’s directive to end the agreement “constitutes impermissible retaliation against it for its unwillingness to acquiesce to the Trump Administration’s assault on federal workers.” It also likely violated due process and AFGE is likely to succeed in showing that Noem’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious,” she added.

“Today’s court decision is a crucial victory for federal workers and the rule of law,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a release. “The preliminary injunction underscores the unconstitutional nature of DHS’s attack on TSA officers’ First Amendment rights. We remain committed to ensuring our members’ rights and dignity are protected, and we will not back down from defending our members’ rights against unlawful union busting.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/tsa-homeland-security-union-injunction-9c85707f3c5eae5748bd539b836d2ea3

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1. Deadline: Legal Blog-Judge finds Kristi Noem likely violated due process on TSA collective bargaining

Some of the Trump administration’s more notable due process violations had previously come in the context of immigration.

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/kristi-noem-due-process-tsa-collective-bargaining-rcna210638

Security” and “due process,” you might think of the government’s legal violations in the immigration context. Branching out into a different context, a new ruling found a move by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem likely violated due process in her bid to crush collective bargaining at the Transportation Security Administration.

Noem had issued a “determination” intended to bar transportation security officers from engaging in collective bargaining. Along with a local union and two aviation-related unions, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) filed a federal lawsuit in Washington state. The plaintiffs argued that the Noem Determination was retaliatory in violation of the First Amendment, violated due process under the Fifth Amendment, and was arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law under the Administrative Procedure Act.

Siding with the plaintiffs, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle granted a preliminary injunction against the Noem Determination and its rescission of a 2024 bargaining agreement. “The Court here finds that an injunction must issue to preserve the rights and benefits that the 2024 CBA confers to TSOs pending resolution of this litigation,” the Clinton appointee wrote Monday, referring to transportation security officers.

“AFGE has shown the Noem Determination likely violates Due Process, having afforded no notice or process for AFGE and its members to work with DHS and TSA to resolve any disagreement before simply shredding the contractual promises of the CBA,” Pechman wrote.

She added that the determination “appears to have been undertaken to punish AFGE and its members because AFGE has chosen to push back against the Trump Administration’s attacks to federal employment in the courts.” So with the caveat that this is a preliminary victory for the plaintiffs in what could be lengthy litigation, it’s the latest example of the administration facing a skeptical bench because of its punitive approach.