Exactly, can't sue the federal government... That's why the airlines love us!

Actually, you can sue the Federal government. Please refer to the Federal Tort Claims Act, which gives the right to sue under certain circumstances. It doesn't seem to apply to the TSA, of course.

Bruce

Have you looked at the SOP and seen where deviations are permitted? HQ has made the determination of what is the appropriate level of threat vs. intrusion. I would start with the premise that nothing needs to be screened unless the SOP says that it should. That would promote consistency.

A rogue FSD shouldn't be able to say that all shoes have to screened or that everyone has to go through secondary, etc. Consistency with the SOP is what all stations should strive for. I would imagine that about half of the comments about the TSA on this forum would go away if measures were consistently applied.

Billions of shoes screened by the Takeoff (your) Shoes Administration, and yet none of them have yielded shoebombs.

Yeah, yeah, we know you've found some other prohibited items in them. Blah, blah, blah.

"You don't have to take off your shoes." Uh-huh.

How do you know when a government spokeshole is lying? That's right - lips are moving.

I can't figure out how the reasonable Flyertalker-TSA employees put up with this nonsense. Given the volume of TSA lies to the flying public, I can only imagine how often the idiots in charge of the TSA lie to the TSA employees. I couldn't work for liars. How do the Flyertalker-TSA employees put up with working for liars?

Is it simply for the much higher pay than the private contractors offered prior to the existence of the TSA?

Hey, for me, 15.60 an hour is wonderful money for a college job - and also the transfer opportunities that await me when I'm ready for a real job strike me as a nice possibility.


But I work at a tiny airport on the coast of California, it's actually not an unenjoyable job at all.

I recall reading something about the TSA not being sue(able?) in the event of a security lapse, but that's probably not relevent; jus think of the TSA as another bail-out for the airlines.

That's the thing I don't get. I hope the mods don't get miffed at me for saying this, but I don't get some of the TSAers getting their jocks in a knot what's said here. Do they expect vegetarians to enjoy hamburgers? There's no gun forcing them to read what's here, and certainly no gun to the head to reply. I know a couple of the TSAers here read and post on TSAscreeners.com as well, and either a thirst for confrontation or arrogance is all I can think of when I see the posts that question our attitudes.

Don't get me wrong, I always like to hear both sides of every story, but the "suffering" of reading posts here is something I don't get.

As for the workplace, I couldn't imagine doing what they do for one hour, let alone a year or a decade. We all have some degree of voyeurism inside of us. And maybe that's what keeps some TSAers going, I don't know.

But to hear the description ranging from (paraphrasing) "it's not perfect, but it's okay" to "we're held strictly accountable" (us passengers are still waiting to see that) to "what a hell-hole this is," yet staying there, is something I'll never understand. Maybe I'm being pompous, because I didn't like the situation I was in several years ago. I decided to make a change, both personally and professionally, even took a huge pay cut to do so.

I'm really curious.

Maybe PH1775 can correct me, but I think you can always sue for negligence.

Not necessarily. The federal government and its agencies always enjoy immunity, unless Congress specifically excludes the agency (thereby exposing the agency to suit).

You might be able to sue individual screeners depending on the circumstances, but what good would that do (screeners are unlikely to have deep pockets that could actually be attached by the plaintiff)?

Nothing personal. I don't blame you at all. I don't begrudge a college student the right to grab the highest paying job out there that meets their needs for flexibility; I know a couple of college-student screeners (part-time) who say that the very long operating hours at their airport (from about 4 am til about midnight) and the uneven staffing needs are perfect for them. As long as the scheduling supervisors respect their class schedule, there's plenty of hours for them.

Still, highly paid college students who don't view it as a "real job" are a far cry from the career-path screeners promised to us by Sen Daschle. We had students and others working as screeners pre-TSA who were willing to do it for half of what you make. Good value for the money? Hardly.

Like I said, nothing personal - I'd probably jump at $15.60/hr if I were still in school (it's been decades since I was in college - back then, $3 or $4 was considered "good pay" for a college student).

It'd be nice if it was a real job - but some of the things they have us do, coupled with the poor training and poor pay really doesn't make that so...

15.60 is good for a college student, but really, 30,000 grand in California, that's not a decent wage for a professional. And neither is taking nail scissors really something that any self-respecting law enforcement officer would do.

The TSA was created in a rush, what they need to do now is re-evaluate everything and re-create the agency as a more efficient and effective organization.

It's been almost four years. How long does it take to determine that pocket knives and scissors are not credible weapons to hijack a plane with?

Don't ask me, ask the congress!

Congress isn't the problem in this case. It's a TSA rule. (Unlike the situation with lighters!)

Bruce

Why ask Congress? Congress didn't ban nail scissors or pocketknives. Or any other specific item on the "prohibited item" list, save for butane lighters earlier this year. Norm Mineta greatly expanded the prohibited item list on about September 12, 2001, in his capacity as Secretary of Transportation.

bdschobel is completely correct. The only Congressionally-mandated addition to the prohibited item list is "butane lighter."

Congress didn't even ban Zippos. TSA did that all by themselves.