Why Have 67,000 TSA Employees Left Their Jobs?
Over the course of its six-year life, the Transportation Security Administration has hired 110,000 employees, and 67,000 of them have quit or been fired. Frightening odds for the first-line of defense against terrorists, writes Annie Jacobsen.
In the fall of last year, a man in a dark suit walked into a UPS Store in Las Vegas, Nevada, flashed a badge, identified himself to the store manager as a Special Agent H. Charles Maurer of the Department of Homeland Security and demanded to see private files on an individual who keeps a postal box there. Familiar with state law, the store manager, M. E. Burks, told the man that he’d have to produce a subpoena first.
According to a federal grievance document viewed by this reporter, the federal agent told the store manager, “I don’t need a subpoena, I have this badge. Now, get me the files.” Burks refused to hand anything over and notified the customer in question instead. The customer, as it turned out, was a U.S. Federal Air Marshal named P. Jeffrey Black. Special Agent Maurer was his boss and was conducting an extrajudicial and unauthorized investigation on Black.
Black is an employee of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Although he is not an official spokesman, owing to his Whistleblower status he is one of only a handful of TSA employees allowed to give interviews with news organizations on matters of public safety (he testified for Congress in 2004). Black has been quoted in publications as diverse as Consumer Reports and the Federation of American Scientists.
Black believes that TSA’s volatile work environment, epitomized by Special Agent Maurer’s assertion that his badge makes him above the law, is directly linked to the agency’s increasing inability to keep air travelers safe. Since October 2007, USA Today, CNN, Consumer Reports and the Washington Post have run lengthy articles giving TSA failing marks. Black says the TSA is more determined to keep up appearances than it is to keep passengers safe.
Black isn’t the only TSA employee who has linked the agency’s poor performance with its heavy-handed treatment of its critics. Annie McKeehan worked as a TSA screener from 2005-2007 in four, separate East Coast airports and witnessed what she says were four work environments similarly appalling.
The former health worker and 62-year old grandmother of ten became a TSA screener at an age most people are getting ready to retire; she saw it the perfect day job while attending night school. But after two years, McKeehan became so fed up with what she says included security lapses, abuse of power and fiscal waste at TSA, she wrote a book based on her experiences. Disguised as fiction (as per her TSA contract) and written under her maiden name, she called it Screener. A little over a month before her book published, McKeehan was called into TSA offices and interrogated.
“They had been monitoring my personal emails. Ones I’d sent from my home computer using a personal email account,” McKeehan explained. In an email to a friend, she’d written that she was fed up with TSA.
“In an email, I wrote, ‘I have a plan,’ meaning a plan for my future,” McKeehan explained. “When I arrived at this interrogation, my TSA supervisor, Bob Adams, and the Operations Manager, Mitchell Moore, had those words written out on a paper which they put in front of me. They kept asking me about ‘my plan.’ I told them it was illegal to monitor my personal correspondence unless I was a national security threat. They said ‘maybe I was.’ So, I said, ‘if I’m such a threat to this country, then why am I reporting to work as a Screener in Charlottesville every day?’”
TSA Screener Annie McKeehan and Federal Air Marshal P. Jeffrey Black both sought to expose the inner workings of an agency so mired in secrecy, the National Security Archives’ Barbara Elias has testified to Congress that TSA is an agency built on “dubious secrets.” One of TSA’s closely held secrets has been the number of employees who’ve been fired or who’ve quit. The TSA told this reporter “that information is not public.” The Air Marshal service says its numbers are classified. In a 2005 investigation of the Air Marshals by the House Judiciary Committee, TSA denied Congress access to its employment figures.
Because transparency is the hallmark of democracy, Congress’ oversight arm, the General Accounting Office (GAO), sought to make TSA’s numbers transparent. In 2005, the GAO discovered that the Department of Homeland Security lost employees at a rate that was more than twice the average for a Cabinet level agency and more than four times the federal average. More importantly, Congressional Quarterly noted that “when TSA’s Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) are removed from the equations” DHS’ attrition rate was more than cut in half. That was as close to a number as anyone has managed to get. Until last week – when TSA started a blog.
Yes, a blog. The beauty of blogs is that they lend themselves to transparency. Interactive in nature, dialogue tends to reveal that which is hidden or kept secret. As future President Woodrow Wilson said back in 1913, “Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety. So, our honest politicians and our honorable corporation heads owe it to their reputations to bring their activities out into the open.” Was TSA really going to bring itself out into the open with this blog?
Inadvertently, it did. It took exactly one week for TSA to make public on its blog one of its closest-held secrets: how many employees have left the agency in its short, six-year history? The TSA has a Congressionally-mandated work force of 43,000 screeners. But how many people have signed on and been let go?
In an entry from February 15, 2008 called, “The TSA, Our Officers, The Public and Theft,” Christopher [White] from the TSA Evolution Blog Team,” addressed a recent news story about a screener caught stealing gift cards from a passenger’s bag at O’Hare”
“To date, we have terminated and sought prosecution for about 200 of our employees who have been accused of stealing, either from checked bags, passengers’ carry-ons or fellow employees. While 200 out of more than 110,000 employees is a minuscule percentage (less than one half of one percent) over the short life of the agency, one theft is too many when you are in the position of public trust as we are.”
Here’s the translation, broken down, in plain English.
· The TSA has a work force of 43,000.
· TSA blogger Christopher [White] says TSA has had a total of “more than 110,000 employees” in its six-year history.
· That means more than 67,000 individuals who entered into employment contracts with TSA have left the agency over this period of six years.
That’s not attrition. That’s exodus. And it’s egregious fiscal waste.
Bob Marchetta is the Executive Vice President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) local 2222-a union for TSA screeners. Marchetta is also a former TSA Screener, a member of TSA’s second graduating class. “TSA has spent as much as $40,000 for an individual’s training,” Marchetta said. “That number has been trimmed down, and is now between $15,000 and $20,000, per individual, for training.”
Multiply the lowest-end estimated training costs by 67,000 employees who’ve left the agency-that’s more than $1 billion dollars into thin air.
This kind of lopsided spending hardly makes sense. “If those figures are correct, than that is waste,” Former DHS Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin told this reporter (Ervin blogs about air security for the New York Times). “There needs to be a balance in TSA’s budget. They need to pay screeners and pay for their training, in balance.”
TSA employees earn, on average, $29,000 a year. “The TSA has created a system of disposable employees,” Marchetta says. “TSA spends all this money on training, but nobody they train stays. It’s like building a foundation on sand.”
So, why do so many TSA employees leave their jobs? This reporter asked the TSA. “All the TSA employees I talk to love their job,” agency spokesman Christopher White said in an interview last November, adding, “Employees who complain about TSA should go get a new job.”
And to the tune of 67,000 of them, it’s clear that they have.
Aside from the torrents of money being wasted, why should Americans care? “It’s a matter of public safety,” says Annie McKeehan. “There are so many new hires at TSA, it’s spooky. Ask yourself, who do you want x-raying the bags that are going to be with you and your family on a plane? A two or three-year TSA veteran? Or a new hire who just came off a ten-day training program? To become good at any job takes practice, it takes time.
Which is the heart of the matter. The entire premise of the TSA is to counter the threat of terrorists, many of who are trained for jihad over a lifetime. When you measure a screener with 120-hours of training – someone who earns $13.99 an hour and who’s statistically more likely to leave their job than stay – up against that kind of terrorist threat, the outcome looks grim.
Annie Jacobsen writes about aviation security and homeland security for a variety of newspapers, magazines and blogs. She is the author of the book, Terror in The Skies, Why 9/11 Could Happen Again.
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41 Comments
1. Roy:so what does this say about all those who were so determined that civil service protections be denied to TSA workers?
Feb 26, 2008 - 3:57 am 2. Fred Beloit:Roy, it says nothing. 67,000/6years = @11%. 11% turnover is no big deal, especially with an older group of employees, if they are indeed older.
From BLS data:
Overall U.S. voluntary turnover increased slightly to 23.4% annually, up from 22.7% the previous year. The highest turnover by far is still in the Accommodation and Food Services sector at 56.4% and the Leisure and Hospitality sector at 52.2%. Sectors that saw the highest increase in turnover were Accommodation and Food Services, up 7% from the previous year, Leisure and Hospitality, up 5.4% and Information, up 4.5%. The only sectors seeing a (slight) decrease in turnover were Real Estate, Natural Resources and Mining, and Professional and Business Services.
In the Government sector, turnover was up slightly at 8.2% with the Federal sector increasing the most to 9.3% up from 5.7%. Regionally, all areas were up slightly except the Northeast which saw a slight decrease.
Feb 26, 2008 - 6:00 am 3. Fred Beloit:Sorry, I forgot to add quotation marks. All the words under “From BLS data:” are a direct quote from this site:
http://www.nobscot.com/survey/index.cfm
Feb 26, 2008 - 7:12 am 4. John Rich:I’m a veteran of counter-terrorism work for the feds; physical security was my speciality.
As an observation, airport security as run by TSA is a bad joke. But not the least bit funny, since red teams (testing security) routinely get weapons through checkpoints.
What to do? Stop the nonsensical focus on things people might bring on board a plane. Start looking at people: how they are dressed (e.g. appropriate for the season/destination?); how they behave (too nervous? too calm?); what they are carrying.
Most importantly, profile, profile, profile. Yes, there have been blond, blue-eyed hijackers. But the overwhelming majority of the threat comes from men and women of Middle Eastern ancestry, particularly men between 15 and 45.
That doesn’t mean ignore everyone else; it just means look more closely at those more likely to pose a threat.
Unfortunately, to be effective in this kind of screening requires more and better-trained people. Much better than the current crop of screeners I experienced on two recent flights (who were very nice and polite but did not strike me as security professionals).
Know this: it will cost more. But the TSA is one of our first lines of defense. Surely this would be money well-spent.
Feb 26, 2008 - 7:14 am 5. Undaunted:Great work again, Annie.
When I was in Army CID, we were too often “ambushed” by federal agents who thought their badges meant more than ours, who threw their weight around as though they could do no wrong … and damn anyone who suggested otherwise. That this attitude is so thick at TSA is not really a surprise.
Some TSA agents want us to think terrorists fear the whisper of their name.
Arrogance like that from some TSA/DHS agents can trickle down to screeners and they then leave because they feel like Maurer wanted Burks to feel; like a stupid, scared “civilian.”
Feb 26, 2008 - 7:18 am 6. Herschel Smith:The solution is simple, and it is the same one most sensible people put forward when the whole TSA was federalized.
Privatize air security. Outsource it and it will get done. Put the government in charge and it will fail. Plain and simple. No other solution will work.
Feb 26, 2008 - 8:03 am 7. BMoon:Very informative article and comment by John Rich. Thank you.
Feb 26, 2008 - 8:08 am 8. DHS Employee:Dear “Fred”
Comparing the attrition data of extensively trained Transportation Security Officers (Screeners) with that of unskilled laborers in the food service industry is laughable.
That would be like comparing the attrition data of FBI Special Agents with that of the janitors that work in the Hoover Building.
An absolutely rediculous comparison.
Hey Mr. Hawley, are you blogging under an alias again?
Feb 26, 2008 - 9:01 am 9. Mark E:Fred — please check your math.
Using averages, 67,000 turnover in 6 years –> 11,167 quits or fires per year. That is 26% of a work force of 43,000 per year
It is also questionable to compare the turnover rate of burger flippers & bed makers with ‘highly trained, security personnel.’ A better comparison would be with security guards and LEOs.
On the other hand, the TSAs risks are minimal (when compared to a cop), they should be bench marked with the 8.2% for govies that you cite.
So, the TSAs are leaving at a much higher rate than their peers.
Feb 26, 2008 - 9:25 am 10. Fred Beloit:“Here’s the translation, broken down, in plain English.
· The TSA has a work force of 43,000.
· TSA blogger Christopher [White] says TSA has had a total of “more than 110,000 employees” in its six-year history.
· That means more than 67,000 individuals who entered into employment contracts with TSA have left the agency over this period of six years.
That’s not attrition. That’s exodus. And it’s egregious fiscal waste.”
It seems we have different ways of looking at statistics, DHS.
100,000 people signed on over six years. Over six years 67,000 left. 67,000/6 = 11167 per year. 11167/100,000 = total turnover rate per year. You and Annie talked attrition, I talked turnover. She, and you, wanted to make things look bad. I wanted to make tings look neutral. That is how statistics are used, for better or worse.
Feb 26, 2008 - 10:08 am 11. Ric K.:As a former TSA supervisor, I can relate; the upper management was inept and refused to listen to anyone that didn’t come from the FAA school of thought. Our airport TSA staff had several retired military senior NCOs assigned as sup’s and w/in a year we had all quit due to the lead by intimidation principle. The rank and file workers are for the most part great, but management sucks.
Feb 26, 2008 - 10:48 am 12. Whiskey Six:What has not been addressed in Ms. Jacobsen’s article was the part that reverse racism has displayed in the exodus of skilled screeners from TSA. Many of the people that have left have been the subject of racist remarks and treatment by black supervisors and lead workers. Since the testing scores are “secret” seen only by the supervisors, you have to ask yourself if those were a “Vehicle” for getting rid of the “Snowflakes?”
Feb 26, 2008 - 10:54 am 13. The statistician:Fred,
As a self-made statistician, you should not “want to make” the numbers look like anything. Would you happen to be a government employee by any chance?
Here in the private sector, us statisticians like to compare oranges with oranges and apples with apples. You are comparing coconuts with kumquats.
Try this instead:
Since Transportation Security Officers (the screeners) are 1800 Series Federal Law Enforcement Officers, why don’t you just compare their attrition data with all the other 1800 Series Federal Law Enforcement Agencies and their personnel? That’s how us in the private industry would do it, but then, “we want to make” the numbers be correct and valid.
Feb 26, 2008 - 12:49 pm 14. Snoop Diggity-DANG-Dawg:Looking through strangers’ smelly underwear & socks is extremely boring. That, combined with a 25,000$ salary would make any sensible person quit. I’m more worried about the 43,000 who inexplicably still want to work for them.
Feb 26, 2008 - 1:03 pm 15. Fred Beloit:Thanks Statistician, but I didn’t post this article. Wouldn’t you rather address your comments to the author? I was just trying to make the same point as the author of “How to Lie with Statistics.” Journalists usually read data the way they want to read them.
Feb 26, 2008 - 2:23 pm 16. David Thomson:“Many of the people that have left have been the subject of racist remarks and treatment by black supervisors and lead workers.”
Few people realize that blacks generally are far more racists than whites. This is the ugly truth ignored by the MSM. The politically correct establishment essentially even tells blacks that they have right to be racists. It’s supposedly all about “pay back” for past injustices.
Feb 26, 2008 - 3:31 pm 17. The statistician:Fred,
I couldn’t agree with you more. Let us stick with what the author has given us in the article. What I see is an author who is specifically talking about two types of employees in the TSA: 1) Federal Air Marshals (1801 Series); and 2) Transportation Security Officers [screeners] (1802 Series).
Now correctly if I’m wrong, but I don’t see anywhere in the article where the author is discussing food service laborers, Hospitality and Leisure laborers, Real Estate, Natural Resources and Mining, and “Professional Business Services” — only you seem to be talking about that.
The article is specifically referring to a particular area of Federal Law Enforcement within the TSA. The article is specifically talking about how much it costs to train these TSA law enforcement officers, and the article is specifically talking about how many of these TSA law enforcement officers have quit.
Why would you want to compare these TSA law enforcement officers with the people who served you the macaroni & cheese at your government cafeteria today?
This is Logic 101.
Feb 26, 2008 - 4:16 pm 18. The statistician:Fred,
I couldn’t agree with you more. Let us stick with what the author has given us in the article. What I see is an author who is specifically talking about two types of employees in the TSA: 1) Federal Air Marshals (1801 Series); and 2) Transportation Security Officers [screeners] (1802 Series).
Now correctly if I’m wrong, but I don’t see anywhere in the article where the author is discussing food service laborers, Hospitality and Leisure laborers, Real Estate, Natural Resources and Mining, and “Professional Business Services” — only you seem to be talking about that.
The article is specifically referring to a particular area of Federal Law Enforcement within the TSA. The article is specifically talking about how much it costs to train these TSA law enforcement officers, and the article is specifically talking about how many of these TSA law enforcement officers have quit.
Why would you want to compare these TSA law enforcement officers with the people who served you the macaroni & cheese at your government cafeteria today?
This is Logic 101.
Feb 26, 2008 - 4:20 pm 19. ED:I just quit the FAMs after 6 years. I thought I would stay the complete 20 year. 3 relocations in 6 years, dedicated, military and law enforcement background, and treated like a baby. A baby who, is/was responsible for armed security on US flagged aircraft, but still had to answer to a Brooks Brother wearing regime who cared about perception over reality. Goodbye, good riddance.
Feb 26, 2008 - 4:22 pm 20. MikeT:Fred,
Your logic leaves a lot to be desired.
The annual attrition rate is a function of employees leaving per year against 43,000 employees total per year.
If 11,000 people left every year, that means it’s 11,000/43,000, not 11,000 and some odd over 110,000.
Feb 26, 2008 - 5:16 pm 21. vanka:Fred – your numbers are way off; here’s why:
You take the total employees that have quit or were terminated (67,000) and divide by the number of years that the TSA has existed (6) to get the average number of employees that have vacated their positions each year (11,167). I’m with you so far; but then you take this number of employees that leave ANNUALLY and divide by the TOTAL employees for ALL SIX YEARS. That is where you get the very low average of 10.2%
To get the average annual percentage you must take the average people that leave annually (11,167) and divide by the average number of employees that are employed at any given time (43,000) which yields an annual turn-over rate of 26%.
If you are just itching to put those 110,000 employees into some equation, why not take 67,000 and divide by 110,000 to get 60.9% – or the percentage of employees that left their jobs at TSA over a six year period.
Feb 26, 2008 - 8:23 pm 22. Tired Air Marshal:The corruption in the TSA-Federal Air Marshal Service is so egregious and widespread among the managers, that you literally have air marshals resigning and going to fight in Iraq because its “less stressful” there. Air Marshals have said time and time again, that they fear their managers much more than they fear any terrorist.
Just see for yourself here:
Feb 26, 2008 - 11:22 pm 23. Traci Hallstrom:http://jeffreydenning.blogspot.com/2008/02/former-air-marshal-war-vet-will-work.html
This sounds like what is happening in my workplace and agency.
Traci Hallstrom
Feb 27, 2008 - 7:26 am 24. Prevailing Fedreral Whistleblower:Federal Whistleblower
The systemic and persistent lawbreaking failure of the US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and its attorneys to protect federal employees from prohibited personnel practices (PPP’s), particularly the whistleblower reprisal type PPP. (About 50% of OSC’s 110 employees are licensed attorneys, specifically hired to implement the law – 5 USC 1214 – to protect federal employees from PPP’s, but the legal profession claims its ethics do not apply to their failure to do so, the OSC attorneys apparently claim that legal ethics prohibits them from “blowing whistles” on their and OSC’s lawbreaking – does everything else that can gone wrong in federal agencies since 1989, when OSC was created, begin to come into focus?)
Therefore, part of the context that resulted in 9/11 as well as the personnel issues at TSA, stem from OSC’s failure to protect federal employees from PPP’s.
OSC Watch has 3 objectives: 1) expose OSC’s lawbreaking, 2) stop it, and 3)obtain some measure of justice for the 10,00 or more direct victims (every American is an indirect victim of OSC’s lawbreaking and attendant meltdown in legal ethics).
TSA’s personnel issues do not happen in a vacuum and cannot be fixed in isolation, OSC’s lawbreaking being exposed and stopped would have a very positive impact at TSA.
Feb 27, 2008 - 7:37 am 25. Anxious Flyer:Two points:
It does seem that the cowboy mentality of the current administration has trickled down to those in TSA management. That can certainly be a significant part of the reason for the statistics. Whatever they are, they are deplorable, costly and counter-productive. And given this economy, the work environment must be pretty bad for anyone to quit. Firing is another story. Probably another example of “you are either with us or against us”. Training: is Halerburton or a subsidiary responsible for training?? Still not feeling comfortable with flying.
Feb 27, 2008 - 7:42 am 26. Frank P. Morse:The Jacobsen article was provocative and should disturb all of us who find ourselves at airports and on planes for what seems like half our lives. One suspects that the morale and caliber of the TSA is not quite up to the job as you witness the inefficient and slow process. While it is not politically correct, perhaps it is time to cut to the chase and go to profiling. There are now businesses being started to expedite the processing. The newest, Fly Clear, purports to use retinal scanning and fingerprints but it takes forever to be processed by their own system. There must be a better way.
Feb 27, 2008 - 8:26 am 27. Howard:TSA and Big Brother are synonymous. TSA and the Federal Air Marshal Service get away with violating people’s rights because they are never accountable for their actions. If sued and loses, the taxpayer pays the bill. Maybe Obama’s Department of Justice will look into all of the racial discrimination lawsuits against the air marshal service.
Feb 27, 2008 - 1:34 pm 28. Bill W:Statistician/ Fred/ Annie – I call bullshit on the whole article, and the whole point of the article.
Your 110,000 number comes from some guy mentioning it on a blog and does not necessarily refer to the TSO’s, but could be the whole TSA organization or who knows what he is referring to. That is not enough evidence to jump to the conclusion that there were 67,000 people hired and fired.
Feb 27, 2008 - 7:34 pm 29. Bull Detector:I am with Bill W on this article being bull****. The article’s assumptions are absurd.
The only conclusion that we can reasonably draw from 110,000 number is that 67,000 TSA employees are NOT screeners.
Mar 1, 2008 - 10:36 am 30. aneokle:TSA has known for years of the problems in management and TSA continues to protect their six-figure retired military and other retired government employees now posing as Federal Security Directors on down the ladder. The question today is, “What is the government going to do about this?”
Security officers deserve better. Most take a real sense of pride in their work and pray for change at night, enduring the obnoxious, dictatorial leaderships, lapses in security, favoritism, discrimination, and yes, reverse discrimination, sexual harrassment, fatigue (in some airports, shortages in employees) outdated x-ray equipment as well as failures of explosive testing equipments. WAKE UP AMERICA. It could be your son, daughter, grandmother, grandfather, wife, husband, friend, brother, sister, friend or co-worker that will be in the plane the terrorists return to. For myself, my prayers get longer at night.
Mar 1, 2008 - 6:28 pm 31. Rare Marshals » The Aviation Nation:[...] why the exodus? Read Why Have 67,000 employees left the TSA? [...]
Mar 25, 2008 - 1:56 pm 32. John Stevens:and then people wonder why i dont fly anymore
Mar 27, 2008 - 3:36 pm 33. dan:IT would be very esay given the lack of training that the TSA gives to it’s employees.
Apr 11, 2008 - 6:25 pm 34. mke530531532:When a work force isn’t paid what it should be then things will get bad. Just take a look at the NYPD- tell me how many cops have been arrested and how many have left the force. One city cop just got arrested for bank robbery in Pennsilyania.
Will Al qeuda infiltate the tsa. It could be a sure thing!
Iam a new employee of TSA. I have worked
Apr 13, 2008 - 8:48 am 35. The Price of Whistleblowing » Pursuing Holiness:thirteen days. Non-verbal commnication
indicates that instructors might see race. I have learned that one cannot see
their test grade. Why is there such a rule that leads to
conflict?
[...] He’s even had a federal thug – in fact, it was his boss – try to bully a UPS store owner into giving up his records in the course of a extrajudicial and unauthorized investigation on him. [...]
Jun 18, 2008 - 8:32 am 36. The Tennessee ConserVOLiance:[...] needs to change. The figures paint a dangerous and unflattering portrait. TSA has had a 150% turnover in personnel in just over 6 years. This means inexperienced employees, often with only basic training, are on the job. There is [...]
Jul 11, 2008 - 5:31 am 37. TSA: Tyrants or a Thin, Blue Line? « media lizzy & friends:[...] needs to change. The figures paint a dangerous and unflattering portrait. TSA has had a 150% turnover in personnel in just over 6 years. This means inexperienced employees, often with only basic training, are on the job. There is [...]
Jul 11, 2008 - 5:37 am 38. The Reality Check » Blog Archive » TSA: Tyrants or a Thin, Blue Line?:[...] needs to change. The figures paint a dangerous and unflattering portrait. TSA has had a 150% turnover in personnel in just over 6 years. This means inexperienced employees, often with only basic training, are on the job. There is [...]
Jul 11, 2008 - 5:46 am 39. firstonewithtsa:I completely agree with the article. As a former TSA employee, it is hard to believe that the ‘red teams’ get through with weapons. One of my many complaints (also sent up the chain of command all the way to Tom Ridge) was we were told in our pre-work meetings that the red teams were going to come through in the next couple of days. I said, “Are you kidding me? If you think I’m MAD wait until they hear that they have left their friends and family, stayed in different hotels in different cities all year long, only to find out in the end WE KNEW THEY WERE COMING!!” I was so mad, and so fed up with TSA, I could no longer work there and sleep at night. They never paid attention to our complaints and didn’t care…they were there only for a pay check. Their biggest chore was to fool the public into thinking they were more secure getting on the plane, and getting away with it… Good Luck Annie, I worked in the same airport as you did.
Jul 24, 2008 - 8:55 am 40. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Wants Answers from Air Marshal Service » The Aviation Nation:[...] my February column for Pajamas Media, I wrote about the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) [...]
Aug 18, 2008 - 9:39 am 41. I wish I never took this job:I am going on two years with tsa and believe me when I tell you its a joke. First off we do not have an enough staff because we are not treated fairly, I myself is fed up with the job and looking for another job. It is so much wrong things going on in tsa I rather not say, but I know what in the dark will come to the light so keep doing a good job and let truth be heard.
Sep 16, 2008 - 5:19 am