TSA work slowdown?
 

Anyone notice that the TSA workers have been extraordinarily slow recently? I thought it was just the crew I had to deal with in SLC who took about 30 sec - 1 full minute for each boarding pass they checked and the Xray techs seemed extraordinarily meticulous (had to wait about 5 min for my bags to come through the machine. But then I ran into several other people in PHX and ORD who had the same issue.

Is this some sort of sequestration solidarity moment?

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Who really knows. I just hope they get rid of all of them.


Op welcome to Flyertalk.

Yep, they're just practicing making the lines longer in anticipation of March 1, when they can complain the sky is falling.

File a formal complaint any time your checkpoint experience exceeds 10 minutes.

TSA Complaint Line: 1-866-289-9673

Do not accept excuses, do not bother with the useless blog/blogger. Insist upon filing a formal complaint. Be sure to name any malingerer(s) who slow you down.

I live in DC, work for the govt., and see lots of articles locally about sequestration impact. Because work rules require notice, Wash Post mentioning 30 days, I doubt that you'll see an immediate impact.

HOWEVER, since congress has blocked efforts to unionize TSA, it is possible that the 30 day period is due to union contract requirements that might not apply to TSA. I don't know.

I do know that most of the press is just repeating political talking points as the parties jockey for position. One side talks about draconian shutdowns of food inspection, airports and long TSA security lines. The other side says no big deal since this is only 2-3 % of the federal budget. The former is misleading because no agency has announced its final plans, much less implemented them. The latter is misleading because over 50% of the budget (the entitlement part) is untouched. the discretionary budget takes all the hit, then compresses the cuts into 7/12 of the fiscal year, so 3% of everything is about 6% of the discretionary budget, applied in roughly half the year, or 12% of what's left. Ouch.

Make no mistake. The Administration wants to make a point, and it alone controls staffing & management of the TSA. If it chooses, it alter staffing in such a way as to make life very miserable for travelers in order to try and make the other party look bad.

The TSA union rep in the DC area was quoted on the news as saying that passengers & TSA employees should expect furloughs of "up to 50,000 TSA workers up to 7 days a week".... which is so absurd because they won't shut down the agency....

More likely that contractors will feel it first - think SFO and MCI.

The 30 days applies to all federal employees, unless some stricter rule applies, so any staffing reductions because of the sequester won't start to take effect until later in March at the earliest.

Keep in mind that even then it may not happen immediately. Each agency can come up with a plan for reductions of spending. Some may choose to delay furloughs until later in the year, because only some may be necessary. Others may "spread the pain" over the entire period.

How would you know if they staged a work slow down? They move at a glacial pace as it is now.

If they do stage work rules slowdown, let it begin at DCA - where members of both parties fly in and out of, along with LA's (staff members) commuting back & forth from their home districts ... and hear it directly from their fellow constitutents in lines behind them.

Strange occurrence at PDX last week, they were running at least 50% of the bags through the X-ray a second time. Having watched it for 5-10 minutes, it seemed to be SOP, no interaction between the X-ray clerk and the re-loader, just take every other one and put it though again.
I commented to a clerk that if the machine was defective, perhaps they should consider opening another lane (there were 3 open and 3 closed). Got a reply that it was passengers packing bags in such a way that it was hard to discern the contents. I retorted that it has always been packed that way and nothing had changed. Clerk then give me an absolutely classic reply - stating that if I didn't like it I could always take the bus.... My reply was short - 'Oh really, which bus can take me to Japan'? Idiot had no reply to that.
Roll on the sequestration cuts, I really do hope they cut a lot of this deadwood out.

It won't happen, but the folks who really deserve to be cut are the ones issuing orders to rerun bags twice, take 2 minutes to examine a BP, etc.