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Airport lines for security even longer (The Christian Science Monitor)

Airport lines for security even longer (The Christian Science Monitor)

Old Jul 16, 2007, 8:42 pm
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Airport lines for security even longer (The Christian Science Monitor)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070716/ts_csm/await

Airport lines for security even longer

By Alexandra Marks
Mon Jul 16, 5:00 AM ET


NEW YORK - There's an old saying in aviation: If you've seen one airport, you've seen one airport. The same can be said of their lines for security screening: They're as different as the terminal, time of day, and airport that you fly from.

But one thing remains almost the same: The peak wait times in those security lines are just as long as they were last year. In fact, they're a little bit longer.

Despite repeated pledges from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to speed things up, the national average peak waiting time last month was 13.77 minutes – one minute and 20 seconds longer than last year's national average.

And the national average can be misleading, experts say. For instance, in Atlanta's main terminal on a Monday morning last year, the average peak waiting time was 35 to 50 minutes, according to the TSA. In Los Angeles, it was between five and 24 minutes. And whenever there's a terrorist incident abroad, such as the recent attempted bombings in London, an increase in security can slow things down here as well.

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Last edited by essxjay; Jul 20, 2007 at 6:08 pm Reason: post trimmed per TOS re: copyright guidelines
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Old Jul 16, 2007, 9:03 pm
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At any one time it seems that half of the screeners on my checkpoint are planning on leaving for other jobs and the other half are spending their off days perusing usjobs.gov and The Washington Post. Who can blame them? Screeners at DCA, IAD, BWI, and other airports have the option of working a five-hour shift per day or a split-shift, eight-hour day, where they will start work at 5 am and end at 4 pm (with a three-hour break in between am and pm).
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Old Jul 16, 2007, 10:13 pm
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Originally Posted by DCA TSO
At any one time it seems that half of the screeners on my checkpoint are planning on leaving for other jobs and the other half are spending their off days perusing usjobs.gov and The Washington Post. Who can blame them? Screeners at DCA, IAD, BWI, and other airports have the option of working a five-hour shift per day or a split-shift, eight-hour day, where they will start work at 5 am and end at 4 pm (with a three-hour break in between am and pm).
That's pretty bad if you have to work a "split shift" in order to get an 8 hour day in (full time). Between the pay and work conditions - esp if you have to split shift - it isn't a big surprise many are looking for work elsewhere.

The end result is high turnover and it stops people from staying that would otherwise be assets as they learn and develop over time.

I'd be willing to bet it is probably cheaper to pay a better wage and give TSAers proper 8 hr shifts. I'm no fan of the TSA, but if security is going to be professional in any way, shape or form, employees need to be retained. Training and hiring new employees costs a lot of money.

I would expect "professional security" to earn more than what TSAers currently make and to have better working conditions.

How often does the TSA give raises? How much are the raises? It needs to be not only a decent living wage, but enough to retain "professional" employees. The hourly rate may be much better than pre-TSA, but the pay rate is much lower what a "professional" should earn. The turnover rate in a "professional" enviornment should be low.

In closing, it would be interesting to see what the TSA is spending on training and hiring new employees.
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Old Jul 16, 2007, 11:50 pm
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Originally Posted by SDF_Traveler
That's pretty bad if you have to work a "split shift" in order to get an 8 hour day in (full time). Between the pay and work conditions - esp if you have to split shift - it isn't a big surprise many are looking for work elsewhere.

The end result is high turnover and it stops people from staying that would otherwise be assets as they learn and develop over time.

I'd be willing to bet it is probably cheaper to pay a better wage and give TSAers proper 8 hr shifts. I'm no fan of the TSA, but if security is going to be professional in any way, shape or form, employees need to be retained. Training and hiring new employees costs a lot of money.

I would expect "professional security" to earn more than what TSAers currently make and to have better working conditions.

How often does the TSA give raises? How much are the raises? It needs to be not only a decent living wage, but enough to retain "professional" employees. The hourly rate may be much better than pre-TSA, but the pay rate is much lower what a "professional" should earn. The turnover rate in a "professional" enviornment should be low.

In closing, it would be interesting to see what the TSA is spending on training and hiring new employees.
I consider myself a good and experienced screener. And in spite of all my awards for excellence and my years on the job, I make under $30k/yr. base salary.

Last edited by DCA TSO; Jul 17, 2007 at 12:12 am
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