Tom Harkin: “one thing I have learned in my years in public service is that if you want answers to the big problems in our society…”

“one thing I have learned in my years in public service is that if you want answers to the big problems in our society, you have to ask the people who work with those problems every day. When there is a meth crisis in my State, the first people I want to talk to about it are the police chiefs and sheriffs because they are the ones that have to think every day about how a meth distributor might think, where they hide, and how they operate. When I want to know how education policy is affecting children in the classrooms, I talk to teachers and parents. So it only stands to reason that if we want to know where the holes in our TSA screening processes are, then we ought to be talking to the transportation security officers, or TSOs. These are the people who are responsible for screening airline passengers. A good way for the screeners to band together and share their collective thoughts on how to improve safety in our airports is by allowing them to collectively bargain. I realize that some members of this body have antiunion sentiments. They think that if folks come together and try to negotiate for better pay and working conditions that we won't be able to expect consistently high results.…”