The Senate on Wednesday rejected a second effort by Republicans to deny union bargaining rights to 45,000 federal airport screeners. 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, 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.
See "Senators Limit Screeners' Union Rights", Associated Press, The New York Times, March 7, 2007