Washington, D.C., Sept. 21 – During his Sept. 16 acceptance speech at the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh, newly-elected AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka singled out the American Federation of Government Employees' campaign to win workplace rights for Transportation Security Administration employees, saying AFGE has the backing of the AFL-CIO and its 11.5 million members in the union's effort to organize TSA employees.

"Right now, 40,000 TSA employees are on the verge of winning their collective bargaining rights. Our sisters and brothers in AFGE are going to organize them, and Brother John Gage [AFGE president], I want you to know that the AFL-CIO will stand with them until every last one of those TSA employees are organized," Trumka said to a big applause and cheering crowd.

Trumka's speech comes as the powerful AFL-CIO - a coalition of 57 national and international labor unions - is moving forward with the campaign to bring unionism to every worker in the country including TSOs, and to "see that every worker who wants a union contract gets a union contract" - as Trumka put it. AFGE has been affiliated with the AFL-CIO since AFGE was founded in 1932.

"Unlike stand-alone unions, AFGE has enjoyed the AFL-CIO's enormous political clout on Capitol Hill and across the country," said AFGE President John Gage. "Being a part of the AFL-CIO is being a part of the rich and proud history of the U.S. labor movement -- an institution that is critical to our country and its middle class."

AFGE has made TSOs an integral part of everything it does. Gage met with AFL-CIO State and Central Labor Body presidents during the AFL-CIO convention to coordinate their support in the coming election of unions to represent TSA employees. TSO Shawn Williams, AFGE TSA Local 332 (PIT) women's coordinator, also addressed the AFL-CIO convention and asked the participants to display AFGE's luggage tags when they flew out to show support for TSO workplace rights. After her speech, Williams and her Local President, Kim Kraynak, met with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis where both shared their experiences as front line security officers.

"There is no way we would have had the opportunity to address Secretary Solis directly were it not for our affiliation with AFGE and the AFL-CIO," Williams said after the meeting. "It was encouraging to see how well our issues were received."

TSOs were well represented at the AFGE 38th Convention in Reno, Nevada last month. Half a dozen TSO Locals sent delegates to the convention where President Gage and National Secretary-Treasurer J. David Cox were re-elected and TSO Josephine Diaz from Local 777 threw her hat in the ring for the office of national vice president for women and fair practices. Although Diaz lost to AFGE's new NVP for Women and Fair Practices, Augusta Thomas, she garnered a respectable number of votes for a virtual unknown.

"AFGE has taken a position all along that we are the TSA Union," said Gage. "Our TSO members are now as engrained in the fabric of our union as are all of our other union activists from the other government agencies we represent."