Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration officers, who are required to work without paychecks through the partial government shutdown, have called out from work this week from at least four major airports, according to two senior agency officials and three TSA employee union officials.
The mass call outs could inevitably mean air travel is less secure, especially as the shutdown enters its second week with no clear end to the political stalemate in sight. "This will definitely affect the flying public who we (are) sworn to protect," Hydrick Thomas, president of the national TSA employee union, told CNN.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 08 2019, @01:54AM
Why do you give "troops in the military" a free pass? For one, these are the federal employees who are _most_ likely to be getting free food and lodging, so are less likely to be evicted, starve etc if they don't get paid. Secondly, this isn't the Vietnam war - they are not conscripts. They signed up willingly, and presumably they understood when they signed up that in the military, far worse things can happen than "not getting paid for a while." Whereas other government employees (eg NASA, NOAA) probably didn't make the same choices when they applied. There are ways to serve your country that _don't_ involve killing.