WASHINGTON — Greg Regan and Shari Semelsberger, President and Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), issued the following statement condemning the failure of the federal government to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers (TSOs) for nearly 40 days:
“Each day that TSA officers’ paychecks are withheld further compromises the safety and security of our national airspace. The chaos ensuing in airports across the country demonstrates the indispensability of TSA employees. It is shameful that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents are being deployed to supplement the work of highly skilled, thoroughly trained TSA officers who are currently uncompensated.
“More than 50,000 TSA workers and their families are now collateral damage in a dispute over a government entity with billions of dollars already allocated to its budget. While these frontline workers are relying on food and gift card donations from their communities, employees in other sectors of DHS are receiving their paychecks in full.
“As America’s largest transportation labor federation, representing hundreds of thousands of aviation professionals, we urge Congress to immediately support a bipartisan resolution that ends with TSA officers collecting the paychecks they’ve earned keeping our country safe and secure.”
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