i understand what you saying but to play devil's advocate (you know me ), changing/putting on fresh/clean gloves is sop if asked and boxes of gloves are at all checkpoints so where gate screening now becomes a de-facto checkpoint, a box of fresh/clean gloves needs to brought to the gate as well, right? imho, the onus is on the tsa on this one.

Disconnect, yes. Database problem, yes.

Dean the real issue I see is that you guys might take offence and possibly retaliate if we travelers ask that our possessions be treated with respect. Also it sounds to me that your procedures are weak on what needs to be done before reporting a to remote checkpoint. Gloves in pocket are not acceptable! An inspection kit should be made up and provided to the team working that checkpoint. Things like gloves, hand sanitizer, flashlights, and anything else you might need should be in the kit.

I put snacks and such in my carry one. Wrapped, but I have to handle the wrapper to extract the snack. I also carry a medical testing device. I really don't want to get that contaminated because I have to stick myself to use it.

We should not even have to ask for clean gloves, and gloves produced from a pocket are not clean. It should be a matter of TSA policy that before you place your hands in a travelers belongings that your hands have clean, fresh gloves applied.

Your safety and our safety should have equal weight!!

The real problem is that the TSA is pawing through passengers' belongings with no good reason for doing so!

Well Spiff, since TSA permits airport and TSA employees access to the secure areas without any screening the only meaningful screening that TSA does would be Gate Screening. The primary screening that is done is a total waste of time since contraband can be introduced by other means.

For what's it's worth, TSA is a Total Waste of Time.

But I still want clean gloves!

Dear HSVTSO Dean,

For some time now I have read your posts with curiosity. I respect you for being conscientious employee. You appear to be honest. Obviously, you are much more intelligent than most TSA employees. Your spelling and grammar is certainly much better than many of the folks we've seen on this forum.

What boggles the mind is why someone with your skills doesn't get a better job.

Wouldn't you like a job that doesn't require you regularly dig through people's personal belongings?

Wouldn't you like a job that doesn't require you to be associated with barkers and luggage thieves?

Wouldn't you like to wear something other than that ugly uniform?

Wouldn't you like to work for an organization that is not headed by a complete idiot?

Wouldn't you like to have work history on your resume that people would really respect?

I realize that all jobs have aspects and duties that are unpleasant, but many of these jobs pay much better than what you're receiving.

Docmonkey

It's not meaningful at all if the jetbridge search is done by an unscreened individual. It's a reach, but one could work for TSA and be a terrorist plant with sleight-of-hand skills.

That's... actually not a bad idea. Hm. I'll bring that up at work tomorrow.

You mean a new pair of gloves for each and every passenger, each and every carry-on inspection? I see your point from a public-health point of view, and I understand it - I do. The fact is, however, that it would be impossible to do, if only from the standpoint of logistics. As Junior Supply Flunky at HSV, I'm responsible for maintaining consumable supplies at all the screening locations. I know just how many gloves we go through in a week, and that's not even remotely close to what it'd be if we were required to get new gloves for every individual search. Not to mention the fact that HSV is a small airport; our whole daily (on average, anyway) passenger count is what LAX or LaGuardia have in line to enter a checkpoint at any given moment in time. Under the condition of having 100% fresh gloves for every search, we wouldn't be able to operate longer than a few days on what we have stacked up in the storeroom right now, and it can sometimes take several weeks to several months to get new supplies in.

I do understand the point of the argument you're making, and I'd even agree that it's a good one. I do not, however, feel that it's feasible from an operational standpoint.

For me to fully and accurately be able to respond to every aspect of your post there... well. It'd require me to sit here and be typing for an hour or two, and I'm not even sure it'd be coherent enough to make sense of by the time it's done.

I could go out and get a better job, I suppose. I used to be on a fast-track toward a job in the IT field. To say that I had the job in the bag would be inaccurate, technically, but it was close enough as for there to be not much of any real difference. All I had to do was graduate and finish my certifications. Graduation was set to happen in December of 2001. In September of 2001, however, something very bad happened.

I would have started at that other job making nearly twice what I started at TSA at, and would probably be making twice and more what I make for TSA right now (that whole four years without a raise thing at the start, because they didn't have a raise-system in place, really sucked~). TSA pays me well enough though; the cost of living in North Alabama isn't expensive, I make enough money to pay my mortgage and other bills, and to keep my wife happy and work-optional (she occasionally does get bored sitting around the house all day).

Your sentiments, however, have been said to me many times, though usually by my coworkers. Two supervisors have said it to me, a lead, and four or five other screeners. Usually along the lines of "Why are you wasting your time here?"

Suffice it to say, money isn't the sole factor in how I decide what to do in terms of a career. For me to accurately try to explain it, though, I think it'd take hours of conversation, and a couple packs of cigarettes.

I write, actually. I've been doing it for the better part of ten years or so now, I'd guess, so I'd like to think that I have a fairly strong command of the English language, and the rules that govern it (though I'm often guilty of breaking them. Sometimes, for goodness sake, a coordinating conjunction just sounds best at the start of a sentence).

Fantasy-based short-stories and the like, and usually out of boredom. It's kind of a hobby. I've never made any attempt to get anything published (much to the chagrin of several people that I used to do cooperative writing exercises with), and I'll probably keep it that way.

Just because it came up, though, I'll give you a little snip out of something I wrote a couple years ago:

Quote:

Jodiah Ayreg stood at the edge of the iron railing that separated him from a fall that would have surely been fatal. Black stone, sharply cut and dressed though worn away by wind and rain over the past centuries, marked the bastion's wall beneath him, above him, and to either side. He didn't look down. It wasn't that he had much of an issue with heights, but more that his attention was on the distant mountains far to the west through the haze of clouds.

There was nothing to see, not with his own naked eye -- just one; his right eye was an orb of polished glass in the middle of a narrow scar that ran vertically through his brow and cheek -- but he could almost imagine that he could sense trouble approaching. He had predicted it, had even prepared for it, planned for it as best he could, but even the best-laid plans only lasted until the arrows started to fly. A gusting breeze cut through his coat, throwing his black cloak behind him in a flare. He could feel his skin pebble into gooseflesh beneath his clothes, and decided that he had stood there long enough.

Good luck.

Sorry, Dean.

Fresh gloves are hereby required for each search--fresh out of the box. [Let's pretend] a Federal judge has so ruled. [Oh, heck, let's go hogwild and pretend that Kip recognizes the validity of the argument that any sort of contamination could be passed along to pax under current unsanitary procedures and directs TSO's to put on fresh out-of-the-box gloves for every inspection!] As a supply officer, you now have a responsibility to come up with a solution. My solution: TSA can only inspect as many bags as can be inspected given the limitations supply junkies put on the bag inspectors--keep doing bag inspections until you run out of fresh gloves.

See? Win-win!

The rules that require the intrusion were created by the agency. The least they can do is show a modicum of concern about public health. Maybe the agency needs to learn that some things are MANDATORY and the fact that the rest of the world accomplishes goals with limited resources.

It's a hot button for me because I've seen - on more than one occasion - screeners going to the bathroom, using the urinal, then returning to paw through bags without either washing hands nor changing gloves.

44,000 TSA types and you guys can't think of simple procedures. Very telling!

Yes new gloves for each and every human shake down or bag inspection.

What, your safety and health is more important than mine or any other traveler?

<b>I don't think so! </b>

TSA policy already dictates that gloves will be changed upon request. Move some of that "Pretend Cop Badge" money to the glove fund. Problem solved!

Umm, d00d? Have you checked the state of the economy lately?

Dean already shared his perspective; let me add something from mine. I'm a semi-retired editor with 20+ years of solid work experience, including management; plus side trips into sales, marketing, lobbying -- you name it. I've been successful at everything I've turned my hands to ... all A1, top-notch references; even won a few awards for my work back in the day.

I interviewed with a good-sized (50,000 circ daily) paper last year for a part-time job doing some editing and pagination ... they wanted to pay me $11 an hour. I made more than that 10 years ago!

If I could find a meaningful part-time job paying respectable wages in this (Rust Belt) market, I'd be overjoyed ... but in the meantime, making $14.50 an hour without breaking a sweat, with some nice bennies thrown in for good measure, doesn't seem like such a bad deal!