TSA, ATC and FAA inspectors should all strike.

No one else is as customer-facing.

If 20% of the essential employees at the IRS are calling out, do you think the agency heads are going to tell the media?

Remember, the first official line from the TSA was "CNN is fake news, there are no call-outs" and all it took was a quick glance at the security lines to tell that wasn't true.

I understand the sentiment but before any federal employees engage in a strike they may be well served by reading the article linked below. Take note of the link in the sentence beginning with "That seems like" which takes the reader to United States Code

A TSA Strike Would Be Illegal. Period.

I'm not sure the outcome of a strike by any federal employee group would end well for those employees.

If they do strike, I want the federal government to take the same 'zero tolerance - you know or should have known the rules' approach to enforcement that I experience at the checkpoint.

Because at the checkpoint, ignorance of the ever-changing rules is no excuse, even if you are a first-time flyer. Equally, ignorance of long-standing federal employment rules is no excuse for TSOs going on strike or calling in sick.

100% right.

Yep -- I also have zero sympathy for a federal employee, especially a TSA clerk, who is in an "essential" job and has to report to work without pay during a shutdown. Suck it up and do the job you swore an oath to perform with the best of your abilities. This phrase comes to mind:

If you can't do this...quit. The TSA clerkforce and leadership have amazingly short memories. They obviously have forgotten about the Great Shutdown of October 2013.

In 1981, ~11,000 air traffic controllers learned the hard way.

1981.

Refresh my memory - how many federal employee strikes have there been since Reagan fired the striking controllers in 1981?

This shutdown didn't just suddenly happen without warning. I would expect TSA management to keep its employees informed, just as my own (civilian) management always kept us informed when a layoff cycle was likely imminent. Among other bits of advice, we were always cautioned that it might not be the best time to make a major purchase that could be easily postponed - out of an abundance of caution. You didn't want to get laid off; you really didn't want to get laid off right after you signed the papers on a vacation cabin or a boat.

I was a furloughed fed back in 2013. There were a couple of other close calls during the last administration. We spent days deciding upon our recommended essential functions and the resulting employees who were essential. (My agency had two primary mission essential functions in the National Continuity Plan, so it was pretty obvious who was who.) We made sure we had each other's personal emails and phone numbers so that we managers could stay in contact with our folks to inform them and. most important, to counsel tham and otherwise take care of them. The advice you noted above was in our list of advice as well.

You have still failed to provide any proof of your claim in this post: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30653906-post135.html LOL

Sorry, not playing this stupid game. It's like asking for proof that 2 and 2 is 4.

Not a game. You made an assertion that many of us disbelieve - that working without pay during a shutdown is an explicit part of a TSO's job description.

Granted, it's common knowledge. Only an idiot would take a screener's job at TSA and not expect to be expected to work without pay during a government shutdown. And statistically speaking, there are bound to be some idiots among the TSA's workforce, and some geniuses, and some folks within spitting distance of average, just as there are in any workforce at any government agency or private company in the world.

However, whether this particular bit of common knowledge is explicitly (as you asserted) stated in a TSO's employment contract is something else entirely. You want to make that assertion, back it up with either documentation or witness statements, such as an interview with a TSO who says, "Yeah, it was in the contract, so I knew I'd have to work without pay, but it still sucks." Then your assertion will be accepted.

Until then, as the saying goes, "Pics or it didn't happen."

Folks,

When posting in this forum, please keep in mind FlyerTalk Rule 12.1:

Messages which are not respectful will be deleted without further notice and the poster will be subject to discipline pursuant to FlyerTalk Rule 23.

TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

Second this. I've seen it far too often--paycheck to paycheck is almost always a spending problem. My former employer had a policy that you could get an advance on your paycheck, limited to a percentage (as the system handling it didn't know actual withholding) of what you had earned so far. $10 a pop (quite reasonable considering the number of people who had to spend a bit of time for it to happen.) For most people it was rare if ever. For one worker it was clockwork. Every Wednesday, every other Friday. $30/two weeks in advance fees. He didn't have more kids, he made the same as his coworkers.

A strike or organized walk out/sick out, would be against the forms we sign when we are first hired (it is an explicit explanation of the designation emergency/essential employee position). This explanation indicates that participating in a strike or any form of organized walk out, will result in punitive action up to and including dismissal. This is a consistent explanation throughout a persons tenure with TSA, we have consistent reaffirmations, and classes that re-emphasize this point. A strike would result in 2 things, people like myself facing the coworkers that strike on the way into work every day, and those coworkers most likely becoming former coworkers. The current administration does not strike me as a group that would take this kind of a walk-out and be willing to let it go very easily.

I think the most likely scenario if we continue to go without pay, is that you will see a gradual lessening of the reporting staff not due to any kind of organized strike, but due to simply not having any money. Most folks can absorb a couple of paychecks in a situation like this without major ramifications. There comes a point (and it is different for each person) where they are simply not going to be able to make it to work because they do not have gas/transit money, or they are going to have to do some other job in order to meet their basic bills. This first paycheck, a lot of lenders are being magnanimous and allowing a grace period of an extra month, following paychecks, most lenders and landlords are not going to be as forgiving or patient.

Also on a local level, I have been absolutely stunned by the response from the general public. We have 1-3 passengers thanking us for continuing to work during this time, and how nice we have been even in the face of a challenging situation. We have had anonymous folks drop off pizza, BBQ, and other prepared food for the entire workforce. Some of our Sr Leadership has gotten together to provide a potluck type of dinner for the workforce at their own cost. It has been very humbling.