Senate Limits Screener's Union Rights

[BayCityProgressive]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070307/ap_on_go_co/airport_screeners

Okay so this is not all bad even though the headline sounds like it. They would limit the unions power but hopfully this would be enough to make Bush sign it into law or get an override. When we have a Dem president in 08 we can remove the restrictions. A union is better than none at all..

However, in the face of a threatened veto by President Bush, senators decided to limit any union role to non-wage issues and give the government wide latitude to move workers around in an emergency.

On a 51-48 vote, the Senate adopted a measure by freshman Sen. Claire McCaskill (news, bio, voting record), D-Mo., slightly weakening union protections put into the broad antiterrorism bill by Democrats on its Homeland Security Committee. The White House has threatened to veto the bill if it includes union rights for screeners and Republicans have boasted that Democrats don't have the votes in either the House or the Senate to override a veto.

The bill seeks to put in place some of the unfinished recommendations of the 9/11 commission report, including security upgrades on railroads, airliners, buses, trucks and pipelines. It also would provide money for state and local emergency communications systems and require more intelligence sharing among federal, state and local officials.

[Mass]

1. Misleading AP title - Currently, they have NO right. The bill gives them rights.

Of course, all Republicans except Specter voted to give them NO rights, the Democrats voted to give them rights, but the AP title is that the Dems limit their rights.