How can you say that when one of the locations is apparently SFO and that is staffed by contractors?

The problem is greater for contractors. Government employees who are "essential" will get paid for their work whenever there is an appropriation. Contractors almost certainly will not.

Contract screeners are paid by their {civilian} employer. The government has already funded the contract for a given period so those people will be paid per the contract. If government defaults on the contract then the company will have recourse in the courts.

Exactly. I have contractors on my staff, and they are at work, getting paid.

TSOs pulling a sick-out are only going to hurt themselves. If they work during the shutdown, they WILL get paid for their hours, even if the checks are late and cause them headaches with their bills. But calling out sick just causes them to use up their sick leave, and potentially exposes them to punishment for illegal job action.

I wouldn't hold my breath on the punishment, however; the people who make that decision are also government employees who are not getting paid during the shutdown and will likely have much sympathy for those who call out sick. Besides, if it's not an organized sick-out but more of a grass-roots movement, then it might not qualify as illegal - just a lot of individual employees calling out sick on their own initiative.

And there is a rather nasty cold going around this season, so there are many folks who are legitimately out sick - it hit me the week before Christmas and ruined my holidays, causing me miss a couple of extra days of work. I'm still not 100% over it, and it's been more than two weeks.

I was in a similar situation at another job a few years ago, and that is how it worked for me, as well. I was paid by my company, but the government couldn't pay my company's invoices until after the shutdown ended. Being under contract meant that my company was obligated to keep me on the job for the duration of the shutdown, but it also meant that we were certain to get paid for our work after the shutdown ended.

It was awkward, though. I reported for work that first day with only a smattering of essential government employees and one or two other contractors on site. While walking down the hallway, I heard one government employee (who, remember, was forced to be at work but would not get paid until the shutdown ended) exclaim, "What is HE doing here!?" with some genuine anger in her voice. Fortunately, she had said that to another government employee who explained the situation to her without rancor, defusing a potentially hostile encounter.

New York Times is reporting a similar story as CNN about an increased of TSA screeners calling out sick. How can TSA continue claiming otherwise?

T.S.A. Screeners, Working Without Pay, Are Calling Out Sick

Oh, that part is easy - all they have to do is yell "Fake news! Fake news!" and those who support TSA will immediately nod their heads and say, "Yup, I knew it! It's a fake!" while those who don't support TSA will become incensed and say, "No it's not! It's real! You're crazy!"

Probably because the people with the authority to produce authoritative statistics are non-essential workers, and therefore anyone can claim anything without any facts available?

That may well be. But, many (most, according to reputable reporting) contracts are "subject to appropriation" and without an appropriation, the contractor is not being paid and thus the contractor's employees are effectively laid off.

Dishonesty with the public is part and parcel of TSA's mission, so why should you be surprised?

When the president says the shutdown could last "months or years" do you really expect them to sit back and just take it?

Most of these folks are making under $40k. Thats the definition of living paycheck to paycheck in major metro areas.

As of today they haven't missed one paycheck so why walk off now?

Not to justify their actions, but if you knew you had rent due that you wouldn't make if you missed your 1/11 paycheck, would you wait until you didn't get your 1/11 paycheck and then get your family evicted from your apartment? This is a tough time of year for many people - Christmas is a time that drains many paycheck-to-paycheck family's resources.

I think it is fair to critique why someone with a stable job like TSA would be living paycheck to paycheck (outside of a few key metros like NYC and SJC with insanely inflated cost of living) as that is a sign of financial irresponsibility, but if someone is already in that situation then calling out sick and trying to scrape together enough income to make rent or pay the mortgage is a perfectly rational decision.

That said, I have limited sympathy for people who agree to work such a societally offensive job, but that is a separate issue.

I don't totally disagree with you. In my work life I see people (government employees mostly) with poor financial practices everyday and living paycheck to paycheck is a lot more prevalent than many would suspect. People then turn to payday lenders and pay huge amounts of interests on a few hundred dollars of borrowing. A government shutdown brings a different feel to things but at least federal employees are most likely to get all unpaid days paid at some point. I do wonder if this qualifies for unemployment insurance payments?

If this was a civilian business that just shut its doors the employees would be left high and dry with no hope of later compensation.

40% of the US population can't cover a $400 unexpected expense. https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/22/pf/...ces/index.html The problem is obviously not limited to gov't employees.

As others have noted, if you know you're not going to get a paycheck on the 11th and you won't be able to cover expenses due shortly after that, waiting until the 11th to do something about the problem seems foolish.