
TSA acknowledges financial stress of shutdown is forcing officers to stay home - laurex
https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2019/01/17/tsa-says-financial-stress-shutdown-is-forcing-growing-number-officers-stay-home/
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kurczynski

      She said her fellow officers are “out there working, they’re putting their lives on the line. We took that oath when we got hired here, and we’re not even getting what we deserve.”
    

All budgeting problems aside, how do TSA officers put their lives on the line?

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maccio92
You don't think screening for bombs has any potential to be dangerous?

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kingnothing
The TSA has never found a bomb.

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DoofusOfDeath
I don't think that statement, by itself, tells us much about the TSA's
efficacy. Because their mere presence could be an effective deterrent.

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lostcolony
We know at least two made it through. Underwear bomber, shoe bomber.

We also know pre-9/11 how common it was (non-existent).

We also know that they consistently fail audits. Though they've gotten better!
Most recently they only failed ~75% of the time at detecting things auditors
were trying to smuggle in, instead of the prior 95%!

So, yeah, by itself it doesn't. But we have enough data to make a pretty solid
eval.

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mikeyouse
Both the underwear bomber and shoe bomber boarded flights overseas (Amsterdam
and Paris respectively) -- so no TSA involvement.

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goobynight
The TSA has operated overseas before, but probably not in these countries.

If they see a country isn't up to their standard, I think they either show up
to implement it for flights headed to the US or at least consult with the
nation.

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pram
TSA is a case where the government nationalized a thing (airport security)
that was sufficiently handled by the private sector.

A centralized regulating agency for transportation security makes sense, but
heres what I don't get: what was the argument for also creating/hiring a
literal army of guards to replace the private force that existed before? It
seems unprecedented considering everything else in the post-Reagan political
ideology.

It was a massive and invasive expansion of Federal policing power, and it
seemingly comes under no real scrutiny or opposition (beyond everyone
completely hating it)

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pfranz
I have little sympathy for the TSA as an organization. I also have no idea if
the effectiveness is any better or worse, but I feel like the policies and
protocols are more consistent between airports or even terminals than they
were before they took over. (although, the TSA seemed to struggle with this
during the first decade or so of their existence and it's still an ongoing
problem...just much smaller). As airport security concerns grew after 9/11
more demands were made of travelers with vary inconsistent application. At
least now if I go to most airports I know what the security protocol will be.
If I have PreCheck, that is also pretty consistent with how its applied.

Given that, I don't see any reason they can't just be standards or policies
that private security would adhere to. I'm sure there's a boondoggle story
behind it, but I thought some airports had tried replacing TSA with middling
success?

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Canada
"they’re putting their lives on the line"

Yeah right, my heros.

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kordlessagain
If that is true, then technically anyone at the airport is putting their lives
on the line. No one life is worth more than another, so arguing they are
putting their lives on the line is an attempt at controlling the conversation.

That said, the airport is a TSA run security theater:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater).
They know this, of course, but must act otherwise.

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Canada
I was being sarsactic. The TSA is nonsense and a huge waste of money not to
mention time.

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dfischer
TSA is one of the biggest jokes in government economic rigging. Anecdotally,
they're even more grumpy than the DMV. Yeah I've heard the adage the DMV is
supposed to be slow as a control theory.

Bottom line is the TSA doesn't provide the value it costs.

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beatgammit
DMV in my area is quite pleasant. Then again, the TSA is also quite pleasant
(in demeanor, not the inconvenience), so maybe I'm just in a pleasant area.

I really wish we could just abolish the TSA and let the airlines and their
insurance work it out with the airports. Things were _way_ better before 9/11
when I didn't feel like a criminal when I need to ride on an airplane.

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pjc50
The system whereby the government is "shutdown", forcing all its employees to
become creditors, but at the same time everyone is expected to treat it as
mere theatre where they eventually will be paid, is absurd. If it was France
everyone involved would be in the street throwing road flares at the police.
They should at the very least be starting to talk up the threat of going on
strike - or action short of a strike.

(Also, shutdowns are becoming increasingly frequent. If this continues, maybe
one day it won't come out of the shutdown ...)

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empath75
I don’t imagine we’ll be out of this one as long as trump is in office.

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btbuildem
ATC staff, inspectors -- I get that, they're useful

TSA?? They're not doing anything of value, for the most part. Three quarters
of them could probably be let go. We're not losing much here.

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chris_mc
That might be true, but it's still fucked up to not pay them, and you guys are
being crass by saying this stuff right now. They're people just like you and
I, and the TSA front line employees aren't the problem, it's the security
theatre that's become the norm that's the issue. Please consider separating
your hate for the TSA from the individuals doing their jobs each day.

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empath75
While I'm not a fan of the TSA as an institution, I'm certainly sympathetic to
them being in a situation of essentially unpaid servitude. Nobody deserves
that, no matter how shitty or unimportant you think their job is.

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marcrosoft
> essentially unpaid servitude

According to Webster: "a condition in which one lacks liberty especially to
determine one's course of action or way of life"

This is false. They have an option (leave) and can execute on it.

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Daishiman
Man the world you must live in where the option to be unemployed for months is
a trivial thing for everyone involved.

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marcrosoft
Months of unemployment != servitude. There is an option.

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ryanbertrand
I wonder if Uber/Lyft has seen a jump in driver sign ups since the shutdown.
Not sure how fast their onboarding is...but probably faster than trying to
find a new job / temp job?

~~~
freehunter
A friend of mine works for Shipt and she says there's been huge amounts of new
signups in the past two weeks.

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rchaud
TSA staff going from poorly paid to not paid at all certainly doesn't open the
door for any perverse incentives for extra cash. No sir-ee.

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goobynight
Perfect time to end this thinly veiled jobs program.

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excalibur
> “The American people need to know that their air travel remains safe,”
> Markey wrote.

I think the American people have been lied to enough.

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InitialLastName
Air travel is probably safer with the TSA in full operation, but only because
there is a lower proportion of angry and tired people who have been waiting in
line for 4 hours around.

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excalibur
Sen. Markey wasn't referring to the TSA, at least not primarily. He was much
more concerned about air traffic control and safety inspections, as we should
all be.

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otterley
This is a bit puzzling to me. Isn’t TSA paid for by user fees? If so, why are
they being impacted by the Government’s failure to pass a budget?

[https://www.tsa.gov/for-industry/security-fees](https://www.tsa.gov/for-
industry/security-fees)

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kristianp
I'd like to know how TSA employees are getting by and paying the mortgage or
rent, considering that most people have less than $500 in savings. People
saying that they've heard of banks giving out zero-interest loans in some
areas is only anecdotal.

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thefringthing
If this happened in France (or many other places) there would be strikes,
barricades, burning towers of tires, the whole works. American workers are
incredibly timid.

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smartbit
[https://outline.com/Kp9kvE](https://outline.com/Kp9kvE)

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jonawesomegreen
Non-paywall link: [http://archive.is/RPAmu](http://archive.is/RPAmu)

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rwoodley
Nothing like a bunch of privileged computer geeks laughing at the 'help' that
isn't getting paid. And mocking them because they feel insecure dealing with
all the hostility every day on the job.

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gammateam
Time to get a more useful minimum wage job. TSA is just an occasional
contractor enrichment scheme that senator's can't roll back just in case
something happens.

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cascom
While i don't envy their position - i think describing it as working without
pay as a little disingenuous - while they have yet to be paid for the work
they are performing, does anyone really believe that they are not going to be
paid for their work down the road?

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ianleeclark
> i think describing it as working without pay as a little disingenuous

Disingenuous is taking this too far. They're paid in arrears, so the fact
they've missed a paycheck means they've already done work which ought to have
resulted in pay. They are currently without pay for labor they've contributed
within the appropriate time-frame.

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cascom
look i'm not saying they are in a desirable position, or that they are not
entitled to pay that they earned, what i am saying is that if you asked a
private sector worker which would you rather: 1. work without pay, but knowing
you will have a job and eventually get paid (TSA) or 2. find out you no longer
have a job and that you will never get paid for the work you performed (the
private sector example)

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ianleeclark
> what i am saying is that if you asked a private sector worker which would
> you rather

I was saying, regardless of whatever position I might take in a thought
experiment, the US government has acted irrationally and violated an
implicitly (and often explicitly) defined contract within our society: I give
you my labor power, you give me cash. It currently stands that many government
workers are without pay because that contract was violated and they have yet
to be paid for their labor, so WP saying they are without pay is a valid
statement.

