As social media users push to blame Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents for the everlasting lines at airports nationwide, those workers are dealing with extreme financial hardship as the partial government shutdown goes into its fourth week, USA Today reports.
The partial shutdown started in mid‑February after Congress failed to provide funding to the Department of Homeland Security. Close to 50,000 TSA officers are working without being paid, with the March 13 paycheck expected to be the first missed.
“Numerous employees have reported to me that their bank accounts are at zero or negative,” said Secretary-Treasurer of American Federation of Government
Employees (AFGE) TSA Council 100, Johnny Jones, a Dallas-based TSA worker. “No funds for daycare, no funds for food. They just want to know why the hell they can’t get paid when we have money to shoot missiles into other countries.”Since the partial shutdown, the rate of agents calling out has doubled with some airports seeing more than 50% of their frontline TSA workforce absent. Travelers were seen in lines backed up to the parking lot of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas.
Even planes are waiting in long lines for take off.
To make ends meet, some TSA workers are leaving their jobs for other employment opportunities. According to CBS News, Robert Echeverria, who worked the TSA checkpoints at Salt Lake City International Airport for nine years, feels he had no choice.
“I love the agency. I love the people that I worked with. But it’s just, my family has to come first,” he said. “I th
ink the hardest thing is seeing the struggle that my wife was going through and not trying to bring more stress to her. But seeing her cry every night, how am I going to feed my family? How am I going to survive?”On average, TSA officers are among the lowest-paid in the federal government, earning between $45,000 and $55,000 annually. But some airport leadership officials are trying to assist since they feel this isn’t the agents’ fault. Denver International Airport (DEN) CEO Phil Washington put together a collection to help TSA officers purchase necessities that they are not paid for.
“Once again, DEN’s federal employees are working tirelessly to ensure our airport operates efficiently and safely without getting paid. TSA employees just missed their first paycheck, and as we enter a busy Spring Break travel period, we want to do what we can to ease the stress of this moment,” Washington said in a statement.
“That’s why we are calling on the public, our passengers, and other airport employees to donate grocery store and gas gift cards to help make this moment a little more bearable for these federal workers,” he added.
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