Federal Daily - August 18, 2008

House Members Meet With Atlanta TSA Employees

Two members of Congress last week participated in a union-sponsored forum to hear from Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. TSA workers talked with Reps. David Scott, D-Ga., and Hank Johnson, D-Ga., at the invitation of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents Atlanta Transportation Security Officers (TSOs), NTEU said. At the forum, the legislators listened to employees’ concerns on workplace issues including inadequate staffing, on-the-job injuries, alleged unfair treatment by management and poor working conditions, NTEU said. “Congressional attention to the problems facing TSA employees is the first step toward finding solutions to the serious problems affecting this workforce,” said NTEU President Colleen Kelley, who is urging Congress to move ahead and approve H.R. 3212, which would provide TSOs with statutory collective bargaining rights. Introduced last year, the bill would repeal a footnote in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act that allowed TSA to set workplace rules for TSOs. The bill would extend bargaining rights to all 45,000 TSOs, and have the Government Accountability Office examine the TSO pay system, which employees claim has unfairly limited pay increases for TSOs. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1318.

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Record COLA Yields Large Annual USPS Raise

A record cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) this year means that U.S. Postal Service (USPS) workers represented by the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) will be receiving an annual raise of $1,477 at the end of the month, APWU said. The COLA increase is the result of the Consumer Price Index rise during July, the last month of the most recent six-month COLA measuring period that was part of the union’s 2006 National Agreement, according to an Aug. 14 update on the APWU Web site. The union said the hike will be effective Aug. 30, and will be reflected in Sept. 19 paychecks. The adjustment will amount to a 71-cent per hour increase, or $56.80 per pay period. The July index represents the completion of the fourth (of eight) six-month COLA measuring periods in the 2006-2010 Collective Bargaining Agreement. After receiving no increase during the first measuring period in 2007, employees received a $686 raise on Sept. 1 and a $479 raise on March 15. With the latest adjustment, the COLA increases in the current contract will total $2,642. To see more, go to: http://apwu.org/news/webart/2008/0876-cola-080814.htm.

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Inmates Indicted in Death of Federal Prison Guard

A federal grand jury indicted two inmates on murder charges in the June 20 death of a prison guard at the Atwater, Calif., federal penitentiary, the Justice Department (DOJ) said in an Aug. 14 statement. Inmates Jose Cabrera Sablan and James Ninete Leon Guerrero were each indicted on murder charges in the death of Jose Rivera, a guard at the high-security federal prison just outside Merced, Calif. Rivera, 22, was returning inmates to their cells when Sablan pulled an 8-inch ice-pick-like weapon out of his pocket and stabbed Rivera in the upper torso, the indictment alleges. Rivera later died. If convicted, both men could face the death penalty, DOJ said in a statement. Both inmates already are serving life sentences. www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae/press_releases/docs/2008/08-14-08Sablan-GuerreroIndictmen.pdf.

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