Look for the Union label and do not hire.
Via ABC15:
Phoenix’s busiest airport could cut ties with the TSA in the wake of a baggage-screening system breakdown that caused travelers a massive luggage delay, city officials said Friday.
Deborah Ostreicher, the city’s assistant aviation director, said Thursday’s chaos at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was the latest in a growing list of frustrations with the Transportation Security Administration.
She also cited long wait times and a lack of a TSA PreCheck process. That allows passengers who are approved to pass through screening more quickly, without having to take off shoes, belts or jackets or remove laptops and liquids from carry-on bags.
Calling the current level of service “unacceptable,” Ostreicher said officials are reviewing several options to improve things for travelers.
“One of those options is to utilize a contractor to provide security as some other airports have done,” Ostreicher said in a statement.
TSA spokesman Nico Melendez declined to comment on the matter.
“Significant, unprecedented” technical issues with a computer server on Thursday led to more than 3,000 checked bags being left behind at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Melendez said.[…]
Greg Puriski, president of TWU Local 555 which represents 11,000 airport ground crew workers employed by Southwest, said baggage handlers at Sky Harbor would be working overtime again Friday to help push through delayed luggage.
Puriski could not recall a recent equipment breakdown that caused a delay of such magnitude. TSA scanners frequently break down at airports but are usually fixed within a couple of hours. The ordeal demonstrated TSA’s need for a sufficient backup system and more manpower, he said.
“It seems like the responsibility of relieving the situation is more on the airlines and the workers to fix it,” Puriski said. “It seems like there is no plan B.”
According to the TSA, the baggage systems handle the bulk of checked luggage.
HT: Island Lifer