TSA pay could be coming, but not quickly. How to help in the meantime.
After last fall’s government shutdown it took about a week for Atlanta Transportation Security Administration officers to receive back pay for their more than 40 days of unpaid work, said George Borek, an American Federation of Government Employees union steward representing Atlanta TSA employees.
This time around it might also take that long, union officials said.
After early Friday hopes of a Congressional deal, the fate of officers’ pay remained unclear Friday afternoon.
President Donald Trump on Friday directed funds to pay TSA workers, saying an ongoing funding stalemate constitutes an emergency. The Department of Homeland Security said TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday.
The memo came after House Republicans rebuffed a bipartisan Senate-passed government funding bill.
House Republicans pledged to introduce their own version, but Senate Democratic leadership has already rejected it as “dead on arrival.”
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, meanwhile, is expecting another busy weekend, with more than 150,000 people combined expected to pass through security checkpoints Saturday and Sunday.
The airport saw the second-highest callout rate among TSA officers on Thursday at more than 40%.
Speaking Friday morning, Borek guessed that like the last shutdown it could take about a week for back pay to flow, if a funding mechanism was approved. “I don’t think they would make us wait two weeks. The intent is to get everyone back.”
However, some TSA officers last fall waited as long as 14 to 30 days to receive complete back pay given where things were in the pay cycle, Johnny Jones, an American Federation of Government Employees official based in Texas, told reporters earlier this week.
Essential DHS workers, including TSA officers and U.S. Coast Guard and FEMA employees, have been working without pay for six weeks.
People standing in long security lines in Atlanta on Friday said they felt it has all been unnecessary.
“It’s just politics,” said New Yorker Richard Nix, who was headed back to the Big Apple after a business trip in Atlanta. He said he felt like TSA workers have been used as “bait,” creating unneeded hardship for their families.
“We go through this every year, and both sides are to blame and play this game,” he said.
Suwanee resident Stanley Smith said he felt there would be an impact at the polls.
“I think they’re playing politics with a lot of people’s lives, and they need to realize that they’re not representing their constituents,” Stanley said of Congress. “They’re representing their own personal interests. They’re impacting a lot of people who are willing to change the landscape of who’s representing things.”
TSA officials have said some officers are sleeping in their cars and selling blood and plasma to make ends meet.
Even if they soon get back pay, those wages won’t cover expenses incurred when workers couldn’t pay their bills or rent, such as late fees, officials said.
How to help
There has been “enormous interest” from passengers trying to help Atlanta’s TSA officers through donations, the Atlanta airport’s general manager, Ricky Smith, told the AJC.
But passengers cannot just hand individual officers cash.
People can, however, donate “food, non-alcoholic beverages and store or merchant specific gift cards (gas, grocery store, restaurant, etc.),” TSA said on social media during the government shutdown in October.
The agency recommends trying to find a TSA management employee at a checkpoint — or trying to reach TSA through the Atlanta airport’s main phone line — to facilitate the gifts.
Kevin Campbell arrived early for his flight out of Atlanta on Friday to try to do just that.
The Waleska resident was determined to thank TSA officers for their service without pay as he prepared to fly to a charity event in Orlando.
“To me, it’s disgraceful,” he said. “It’s disgusting people aren’t getting paid. It’s nothing more than egos. … It’s the TSA folks who are getting hurt.”
Campbell brought along eight $20 Circle K convenience store gift cards and waited about 30 minutes at a Clear office until an employee came to accept them on behalf of TSA.
‘Collateral damage’
On Friday there was some cautious optimism and a “difference in some officers” among Atlanta’s TSA ranks with the news of a possible impending deal, Borek said.
“We’re a step in the right direction.”
Ultimately, Borek said he’s watching to see what the long-term “collateral damage is” within Atlanta’s TSA ranks.
Even if back pay comes through, officers forced to find work elsewhere during the shutdown might choose to stick with that other job. This shutdown is also not likely to help in the agency’s effort to recruit new officers or retain existing ones.
Nationally, TSA officials have said the agency has already lost nearly 500 officers during this shutdown.
“That number is going to be bigger,” Borek predicted.
“When we’re finally open, we’ll see who’s coming back and who’s not,” he said.
“I have not seen some officers for weeks.”
— Staff writers Kelly Yamanouchi and Tia Mitchell contributed to this report.
About the Authors
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.
