"Screeners sworn in at Oakland airport"

Tuesday, October 8, 2002

Screeners sworn in at Oakland airport
New federal employees will steel themselves for scrutiny by travelers
and media at their checkpoints
By Guy Ashley
THE CONTRA COSTA (CA) TIMES


OAKLAND - Finding a job during hard economic times was good news enough.

But the 88 new baggage screeners at Oakland International Airport on
Monday were welcomed into a new era of employment with a passionate pep
talk and the eyes of the media watching their every move.

"It's a very big responsibility," said Trevor Rieger, 33, a Gulf War
veteran who was one of the first wave of federal baggage screeners to be
hired in Oakland. "I'm looking forward to taking up the challenge."

Rieger and 87 other new hires were sworn in during a brief ceremony
Monday, only hours before many of them were to report to work for the
first time at the security checkpoints.

The first federal screeners were scheduled to take their posts at 12:01
a.m. today as part of a month-long transition in which Oakland's
approximately 220 screeners will change from private contractors to
federal employees.

The new screeners, who will earn from $28,000 to $42,000 annually,
received words of high praise from their new boss, Fred Lau, the
airport's federal security director, who spoke proudly of the high
number of recruits in Oakland who passed the rigorous battery of tests
required.

The 88 were among a pool of 92 applicants first screened by Oakland
airport officials.

Lau, the former San Francisco police chief, also warned the new
screeners that there would be little time to ease into their jobs.

"You have undergone extensive training and shown you can do the job,"
Lau said. "You are now being asked to put that training to use right
away -- as soon as midnight (Tuesday)."

The federalization of airport screeners was one of Congress' earliest
responses to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- and a gesture toward
safer airways that was welcomed by a traveling public left feeling
vulnerable and terrified.

But the shift was far from painless. Because all federal employees must
be U.S. citizens, the shift left thousands of non-citizen screeners
facing an employment dead end.

For years, airport security outfits found the jobs difficult to fill --
due to their long hours, low pay and the fact that unpleasant encounters
with rushed travelers were not rare. Non-citizen residents looking for a
source of income were welcomed into the ranks.

The citizenship requirement left a significant number of experienced
screeners in Oakland -- estimated at 20 percent to 50 percent, depending
on whom you talked to -- ineligible for the federal positions.

This fact sparked bad feelings, and in a demonstration last week in the
airport parking lot, many screeners said they felt they were being made
scapegoats for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Newly hired federal screeners said they hadn't given much thought to the
controversy.

"They had openings, I was interested in the job and I applied," said
David Huang, 31, of Fremont, who was laid off last year from a computer
manufacturing job in Silicon Valley.

"I don't know what else to say. It's a known fact that you have to be a
citizen to be hired for this job."

The recruits sworn in Monday will take up posts in the airport's north
terminal as part of a phased-in transition that will likely last up
until Nov. 19, the deadline by which all screeners must be federal
employees.

Starting tomorrow, veteran screeners who are U.S. citizens will have
their first crack at testing for the new federal positions in Oakland.
All experienced screeners who pass muster in the testing are guaranteed
jobs, Lau said.

So far, federal screeners have taken up their posts at 142 of 429
airports nationwide, said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the federal
Transportation Security Administration.

In addition to Oakland, federal screeners will arrive today for the
first time at airports in Los Angeles and Fresno and at John Wayne
Airport in Orange County.

San Francisco International is one of five airports nationwide that will
use private screeners as part of a test to compare government screeners
with their private-sector counterparts.


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