Atlanta offers free parking, meals to TSA workers during government shutdown
Transportation Security Administration workers who handle screening at the nation’s airport checkpoints are among the federal employees working without pay during the ongoing government shutdown.
If the shutdown continues, on Oct. 11 the roughly 1,500 TSA employees in Georgia are set to receive their first partial paycheck, according to Aaron Barker, president of the Local 554 chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees union that represents them.
About 1,200 TSA officers work at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, he said. The city of Atlanta is offering them free parking and meal vouchers starting Oct. 11.
Their first paycheck, depending on their schedules, could be as low as half what they’re used to, Barker said. After that paycheck, employees will receive “zero dollars” if the shutdown continues.
The implications of the shutdown have quickly become real for Georgia’s TSA workers. Morale is dropping, he said. “People are really concerned about how they’re going to pay their bills.”
“A lot of officers have started reaching out to their creditors, mortgage lenders … to ask, ‘Can I make a partial payment or postpone my payment?’” he said.
Barker told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he suggested the idea of offering free parking as a “morale booster,” to politicians who have reached out. Democratic Atlanta Congresswoman Nikema Williams called Mayor Andre Dickens to make it happen, he said.
If the shutdown lasts until Oct. 11, free parking at the airport’s ATL West Deck and Lot 3 will kick in for TSA employees, an airport spokesperson confirmed. Barker said that will save them time from their current off-site shuttle lot.
Full-time employees will also receive two meal vouchers from the city per shift for use at any airport concessions.
But these short-term offerings do not address the larger fears looming over government employees like TSA officers during this shutdown.
Unlike past government closures, Barker said, the threats of large-scale layoffs during the shutdown by the Trump administration are adding a new layer of stress as they weigh whether they can afford to keep coming to work without pay.
“That is a big topic for officers,” he said. “If I am not able to come to work because I don’t have the funds ... will I lose my job?”
“We just don’t know how things are going to work out with this shutdown,” Barker said.
About the Author
As a business reporter, Emma Hurt leads coverage of the Atlanta airport, Delta Air Lines, UPS, Norfolk Southern and other travel and logistics companies. Prior to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she worked as an editor and Atlanta reporter for Axios, a politics reporter for WABE News and a business reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
