A three-year labor agreement between 44,400 Transportation Security Administration screeners and the TSA was announced today by  the American Federation of Government Employees union. The vote was 17,326-1,774.

The union says the deal will:

• Provide improved uniforms and permits uniform variations to account for weather and temperature.
• Provide a greater degree of consistency and fairness on issues like annual leave bidding and shift trades.
• Provide a stable and consistent process for shift bidding and movement between full- and part-time.

 “It was a good turnout — I wasn’t sure because they gave us limited time to vote — but it was half the workforce, and it was 10-1, a landslide,” Stacy Bodtmann, a screener at Newark Liberty, told the Star-Ledger.

When the TSA was established after 9/11, TSA mangement was given the right to decide if workers could unionize, the Star-Ledger said. That did not happen until 2010, “ with the provision that pay and security-related issues were not negotiable.”

OnTheBeat filed a FOIA request last week with the Transportation Security Administration for records related to TSA employees fired or disciplined for criminal activity while on the job.

Even though it’s similar to a records request that led ABC News to a trove of documents earlier this month — and we cited that case in the request — we’re not expecting a fast turnaround. (But feel free to surprise us, TSA folks).

When we get the data, we’ll share a downloadable file so you won’t have to repeat the FOIA shuffle. 

ABC with the records it received was able to compile a list of airports with the most employees fired for theft. Some 400 employees have been fired over theft allegations, ABC News said. 

UPDATE on 11/1: Got a call this morning and had a discussion  with a very helpful gebnt in the TSA FOIA office. We’re making progress.

Top airports for TSA employee thefts (number in parens is the total workers fired).

1. Miami International Airport (29)

2. JFK International Airport (27)

3. Los Angeles International Airport (24)

4. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (17)

5. Las Vegas-McCarren International Airport (15)

6/7. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and New York-Laguardia Airport (14 each)

8/9/10. Newark Liberty, Philadelphia International, and Seattle-Tacoma International airports (12 each)

See all 20 on the list, which was compiled by ABC News based on data it obtained with a FOIA request. 

A recent theft investigation by the TSA at Newark Liberty did not lead to charges, however, the TSA last week said it was planning to five 25 employees and suspend 19 others over improper luggage screening. Here’s USA Today’s story on that.

ProPublica reports that the controversial “backscatter” scanners have been replaced with non-radiation-emitting “millimeter-wave scanners” at airports in  Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, New York and Orlando.  Speed — not safety — was the reason cited by the Transportation Safety Administration for the switch.

The X-ray scanners have faced a barrage of criticism since the TSA began rolling them out nationwide after the failed underwear bombing on Christmas Day 2009. One reason is that they emit a small dose of ionizing radiation, which at higher levels has been linked to cancer.

In addition, privacy advocates decried that the machines produce images, albeit heavily blurred, of passengers’ naked bodies. Each image must be reviewed by a TSA officer, slowing security lines.

The replacement machines, known as millimeter-wave scanners, rely on low-energy radio waves similar to those used in cell phones. The machines detect potential threats automatically and quickly using a computer program. They display a generic cartoon image of a person’s body, mitigating privacy concerns.

It is unclear how many of the scanners will be replaced or where. Some of the X-ray scanners will be  redeployed in smaller airports. 

To compare the two types of scanners, check out this side-by-side summary from ProPublica.

Even though the U. S. Supreme Court this week declined to hear an appeal in his case fighting the Transportation Security Administration’s body scanners,  Jonathan Corbett says he’ll keep going. “ The good news is that the fight is not over,” he said on his blog, indicating he’ll head back to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.