TSA agent talks about financial stress of nearly month-long government shutdown
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Many federal workers are trudging through their first shifts without a paycheck. That includes some workers, like TSA agents, at Minnesota’s airports.
“We are really starting to feel the pain,” said Paul Uecker, Greater Minnesota Vice President of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Local 899, which represents TSA agents.
Uecker has been with the TSA for 15 years. He’s worked through numerous shutdowns including the longest federal shutdown, which lasted 35 days in December 2018. He said navigating the stress of the job and lack of paycheck is a difficult process.
“We had an officer whose landlord doesn’t care. They said that, ‘Nope, your rent is due when it’s due.’”
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Uecker joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition to talk about what he’s hearing from fellow members of airport security.
Below is a transcript lightly edited for style and clarity. Listen to the full conversation by clicking the player above.
How’s the morale among TSA agents right now?
Well, it’s not the best. It’s been better. It’s been worse, but we are at the point we’ve missed a paycheck now completely.
The previous paycheck we got was anywhere between 50 and 75 percent so, we are really starting to feel the pain.
Are the younger agents a little more worried?
That’s definitely true, in part because the people who've been there longer tend to make more money, so they’re a little bit better financially situated than the people who are newer. But also, they have more experience with this.
Sadly, we’ve been through this time and again. I, myself, have been working for TSA for almost 15 years, and have been through three or four different shutdowns at this point, including the longest one a few years back, of 35 days.
What’s that like financially?
Financially, it’s kind of a game of figuring out how much money you have and what things you can trim down, how much you can cut back. You maybe stop going out to eat as much, you take fewer breaks, you have less things that you can do that are considered non-essential spending.
If you have savings, you may dip into those. There are arrangements that some banks and credit unions are making so that you can get loans that are either low- or no-interest that you can do, but that’s all individual.
We have a letter provided to us from TSA to give to creditors to inform them that, “Yes, we are not being paid during this time. Please be considerate.” Some creditors are great about that, and some are not.
We had an officer whose landlord doesn’t care. They said, “Nope, your rent is due when it’s due, and it’s $50 a day for late fees.”
And emotionally?
It’s a difficult process. I mean, we have a stressful job anyway. We’re doing all sorts of different positions and making sure that we are covering and making sure nothing gets on airplanes, and nobody gets on airplanes that has bad intentions. This takes away from that focus.
When you’re sitting at an X-ray machine, you should be focusing on what’s going through the X-ray, but it’s harder to do that when you’re thinking about: How am I going to pay the bills? How am I going to buy gas? How am I going to get food for my family? Or child care?
How are passengers reacting?
We haven’t been hearing a lot from passengers, actually. That’s one of the things that I’ve noticed in previous shutdowns to this one, is that this does not seem to be as well-publicized.
People don’t seem to be aware of it. In fact, the entire day yesterday, I didn’t hear a single passenger mention anything about the shutdown or us working without pay.
Is there a food bank at the airport for agents?
There is a food bank at the airport, and we've donated to that, and so that is helpful. And we've had that in the past. We've also had people wanting to supply things and donate things like gas cards or food and meals to the TSA agents.
We haven't seen as much of it this year as we have in the previous shutdowns. That is something that is possible. If people are interested in doing so, they just need to know that they should speak to a supervisor or a member of management, because individual agents are not allowed to accept donations.
As this drags on, do you think TSA agents will just leave the business?
That’s definitely a situation that has happened in the past, and we are considering and expecting that to be going on again in this shutdown. People just get tired and they either can’t do it and they quit, or even the agency lets people go sometimes.
Because we have people who end up calling off because they can’t afford gas to get in their vehicle to get into work, and they get let go.
