Originally Posted by saizai

I disagree.

I am obviously no TSA apologist. I don't condone the policies, and I do not condone screeners who violate clearly established law, regardless of what the policies are.

However, it's also a bad, low paying, low morale job. Making it worse in terms of working conditions etc only means you get people doing it because they have no realistic alternatives.

Screeners deserve to have the same basic rights as all other random Federal workers — for instance, to get reasonable accommodations for their own disabilities, to advocate through unions for better working conditions, to have safety protections like dosimeters, etc.

I would much rather have TSOs be properly compensated, trained, protected from hazards, etc., and without the various abuses by management I've heard of from multiple TSO informants. (I've had more than one contact me — https://s.ai/contact, hint hint — who supports my advocacy work, despite themselves working as TSOs.)

Those sorts of things make for worse screeners. Even if you lack any empathy for them as people doing a repugnant job, at least take the cynical view: happier, better trained screeners are less likely to be barking or otherwise abusive towards pax.