"Sea-Tac keeping federal screeners"

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Sea-Tac keeping federal screeners 
By Cheryl Phillips
The Seattle (WA) Times

 
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will continue to use federal screeners,
the Port of Seattle confirmed this week as airports nationwide ponder
whether private contractors could do a better job. 

Airports can begin applying to switch from federal workers to private
contractors on Friday. The issue has been a matter of congressional debate,
with some suggesting that the federal government is too inflexible, making
it hard for individual airports to handle surges in air travel. 

"We are convinced that if it were subcontracted to a private company, we
would be dealing with two entities trying to coordinate screening," Port
Commission chair Paige Miller said this week. 

Last week, a representative of a federal employees union flew to Seattle
from Washington, D.C., to present to the commission a petition with more
than 1,000 signatures from area residents supporting the current security
system. 

The Port of Seattle Commission had already decided not to opt out of the
federal system before the American Federation of Government Employees made
its appeal, Miller said. The union informally represents more than 1,000
Transportation Security Administration employees nationwide who have joined,
but has no legal standing on the issue. 

TSA forbids screeners to bargain collectively. The union does not yet know
of any airports that are opting out of the federal system, said Gony
Frieder, a union attorney. 

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation, has
said that as many as 100 airports have expressed interest in using private
contractors instead of the federal employees. 

A TSA spokeswoman said the agency would have some idea next week of how many
airports are choosing to hire private companies instead of using the federal
screeners. Private contractors would still have to report to TSA officials
at each airport. 

Congress created the federal agency after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks highlighted flaws in the patchwork of private companies that had
provided passenger- and baggage-security screening at the nation's airports.


The decision to keep using federal screeners here comes after a tumultuous
year for the TSA at Sea-Tac. Last December, more than 200 screeners sent a
petition to their congressional representatives alleging promotion
irregularities and a climate that threatened public safety. TSA's internal
affairs department investigated and in April removed the top four security
managers at the airport. 

Later, in a three-day series on airport security problems nationwide, The
Seattle Times revealed that local managers had asked for more screeners to
no avail. 

In August, the employment of the four top managers was terminated. TSA also
has rescinded some management promotions. The agency would not reveal
whether the employees quit or were fired. Former federal security director
Bob Blunk said he was fired and is appealing. His deputy, Bob Coleman,
referred phone calls to an attorney. That attorney did not return phone
calls. Attempts to reach the other two managers were unsuccessful. 

Blunk said he was told that the employees were unhappy and that the airlines
wanted him to do a better job of persuading TSA headquarters to allocate
more employees for Sea-Tac. 

There have been some changes. John C. "Jack" Kelley Jr., the new federal
security director at Sea-Tac, keeps a blue shirt emblazoned with the
agency's name hanging in his office. When lines grow long, he and other
administrative staff quickly don the shirts and head out to help. They
remind passengers to take off their coats and they load carry-on luggage
onto X-ray belts. 

Both Kelley and an airport spokesman noted that lines were short throughout
a summer season of record traffic. 

Mandatory overtime is no longer allowed and employees must take at least one
day off each week, Kelley said in an interview earlier this fall. 

"These folks have done an admirable job," he said of the screeners. 

For their part, screeners say they feel better about the way TSA handles
things at Sea-Tac now. For example, there are now training computers at the
checkpoints that employees can use during slower times. 

Overall, morale has "gone up tremendously," said Lynette Blasbamba, a
screening supervisor. 

But not everything has improved. Other employees complain that the same
middle managers in charge under Blunk remain under Kelley, and are not doing
a good job. 

Kelley, like Blunk before him, is still handling security with about 1,000
employees. Fifty temporary employees who helped through the summer season
have been reassigned elsewhere. Last April, Blunk asked headquarters for at
least 1,300 positions to adequately handle screening needs. 

The local TSA force also is waiting for headquarters to approve installing
phone lines for its training center. Without the phone lines, employees
cannot connect to online training programs. 

And to some travelers, the system just doesn't make much sense. One couple
who flew in September from Seattle to Germany on Lufthansa, had a nail file
taken away by the TSA, only to be handed a metal knife and fork with their
meal once in flight. The couple asked not to be identified for fear they
might be put on a government watch list. 

Miller, the port commission chair, said the local port authority continues
to ask for more screeners and support, but viewed switching to a different
system as the wrong change. 

"Obviously, you always work to make an agency better," she said. "We're just
convinced the TSA is a better option than the private screener
subcontracting option." 

2 employees to be fired for allegedly taking medicine from baggage 

A TSA official said the agency is taking action to fire two Seattle-Tacoma
International Airport baggage screeners who allegedly took prescription
medication from baggage. 

The screeners, a man and a woman, were detained Sunday after a sting
operation carried out by TSA and the Homeland Security Inspector General's
Office, said agency spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin. 

Sea-Tac Federal Security Director John C. "Jack" Kelley Jr. said yesterday
that the two will be terminated.


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