If you’re old enough to have lived through the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, you know what happened at airports before the government and Congress decided to federalize airport security.
Nearly 3,000 Americans died after terrorists got through “security” provided by overworked and underpaid private screeners, hijacked four planes and flew two of them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York and one into the Pentagon. The terrorists crashed the fourth plane into a rural field in Pennsylvania after passengers heroically fought back, preventing them from reaching the nation’s capital where the target was believed to be either the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
Since then, our country has worked diligently to build a federalized airport security system with the number one priority of protecting air travelers. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created to prevent that 9/11 tragedy from ever happening again. And they have succeeded so far.
Along the way, AFGE has been instrumental in our country’s effort to professionalize the screening workforce. We make sure that TSA officers have the resources and support they need to do their jobs, including adequate training, due process rights, and decent pay to prevent high turnover, which could endanger the flying public.
Yet there are for-profit companies and their allies in Congress that seek to exploit the system and make profit off the safety of the American people. AFGE opposes the elimination of TSA and wholesale privatization of the airport screening function.
TSA screens more than 2 million passengers a day. We urge Congress to reject any proposal that shifts the responsibility of protecting air travelers to for-profit entities.
Here are 3 reasons why privatizing the airport screening function endangers the American people
1. It could compromise security, accountability
Before 9/11, you could get on a plane without an ID, carry liquids in any quantity on to the planes, keep your coat and shoes on while going through security. You could also carry on board things like knives up to four inches long and scissors. The only security screening you had to go through was a simple metal detector. Those screening travelers were not government employees. They worked for private contractors hired by airlines with contracts often going to the lowest bidder. They made as little as $6 an hour. The rate of employee turnover exceeded over 100 percent a year at most large airports. And there was little government oversight.
9/11 changed most of that. The rule requiring travelers to remove shoes for scanning while going through security was adopted after a terrorist began to ignite bombs hidden in the soles of his shoes on a Paris to Miami flight in December 2001, just months after 9/11. The rule limiting liquids went into effect after 21 people were arrested for a terrorist plot to blow up seven planes between the UK and the U.S. in 2006. They planned to use liquid explosives that would be triggered by a hand-held electronic device.
It’s hard to imagine us going back to those days now, but privatization could compromise security as contracts usually go to the lowest bidder. The same companies that failed us on 9/11 are now under different names and are looking to get a share of the profitable pie. Their background checks for job applicants are also very unlikely to be as vigorous as TSA’s, and there’s always a possibility of lapsed oversight despite security standards set by TSA.
As former TSA Administrator John Pistole argued, “Security is an inherently government function, and if you take this idea to the logical extreme, then who needs a Secret Service, or who needs a government Department of Defense or Customs and Border Protection?”
2. For-profit companies focus on profits, not security or workers’ well-being
TSA is not perfect and there’s room for improvement, but much progress has been made to balance security and passengers’ convenience. TSA PreCheck, for example, was designed based on security risk and the fact that people, not items, pose the biggest risk to the system. TSA’s only reason for existence is to protect air travelers from terrorists who still see aviation as a viable target to inflict widespread fear and chaos.
Unlike TSA, private screening companies are in this business to make money. Their main concern is profit, not the security of the flying public or the well-being of workers, both of which are integrally linked. These companies’ priority hasn’t changed since 9/11. To make money, they won’t provide pay and benefits that match those offered by TSA. Shifts will likely be longer, posing security risk due to fatigue, and employees may or may not get paid overtime. Workers and former workers have come forward to share their stories about the difference in pay, benefits, and working conditions between TSA and private screening companies.
“I worked in the private sector prior to TSA. It was awful,” one wrote.
“I worked for an SPP for a few years. Pay was about 56K for an LTSO in California. Company got in trouble for paying below the allowed minimum on the contract and was pocketing the rest. If your airport goes private be prepared to lose most of your benefits and get skimped on pay,” chimed in another.
Many TSOs joined TSA because they wanted to make a difference. There’s also pride that comes with being a federal employee serving the American people. If TSA is abolished and privatized, employees whom TSA spent months training are likely to leave for other jobs.
3. There will be staffing shortages and high employee turnover rates
That brings us to staffing shortages, which directly affect the safety and security of the flying public. If TSA is privatized, our country will lose these officers, and it will be very challenging to recruit enough people to do the work. We can expect delays, and airlines may need to cancel flights. Those complaining about inconvenience now haven’t seen anything yet.
During the first Trump administration, TSA reported spending $6,300 to hire and $2,300 to train each TSO. The numbers are likely higher today. As it takes time and money to hire and train an officer, AFGE and TSA worked very hard to cut attrition and turnover rates, and we succeeded in 2023 when we were able to increase their pay. As a result, officer attrition was cut in half from 17.1% in 2022 to 8.6% in 2024.
We already have some privatized airport screening under the Screening Partnership Program (SPP). Of about 400 airports, only 5% of them opted to join SPP. We need to invest in TSA, not destroy it.
