WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- A union may challenge a Transportation Security Administration proposal to charge port employees for required ID cards.
The proposed new Transportation Worker Identity Cards can be challenged during a 45-day comment period. As many as 850,000 port workers would have to pay between $105 and $139 for the identity cards aimed at better security at ports under the rule, TSA announced late last week.
That move was greeted with vehement opposition from union officials. While the cards were not expected to be supplied for free, one source familiar with the development of the program said the price tag may have caught some off guard, GovExec.com reported Monday.
"We have serious concerns about the cost of the TWIC program and the impact it will have on port drivers who are already living at poverty levels," Leigh Strope, a spokeswoman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, told GovExec.com.
The TSA also announced a revised procurement process requiring full and open competition for a contract to create the program. A full version of TSA's 277-page plan had not yet been posted on the Federal Register by Monday, but once it is available, a 45-day comment period will follow where port workers may challenge the fees, GovExec.com said.
Public hearings will be held in Newark, N.J., Tampa, St. Louis and Long Beach, Calif., in late May and early June. Strope would not say what plans teamsters have for these hearings.
