The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is moving forward with the TSA Gold+ program, which will privatize security checkpoints at airports in Tampa, Charleston, and Des Moines. This initiative transfers control of screening technology and security operations to private contractors, causing concern among TSA workers and their union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

Union members are expected to lose their contracts and benefits once private contractors take over. Everett Kelley, AFGE national president, criticized the program as "a major departure and step backwards from the aviation screening security system that Congress created in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and the deadly bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland in 1988."

Kelley emphasized that such significant changes should involve input from Congress, the flying public, local airport authorities, and TSA employees. Before the TSA's creation in November 2001, airport security was managed by private contractors with less stringent standards.

Chris Finlay, a TSA worker in Tampa and president of AFGE local 556, shared his experience from 12 years ago when a private contractor took over screening at another Florida airport. He noted that in 2015, an employee at the Florida airport outside Orlando was fired after reporting a steak knife that had passed through security.

In May, TSA Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl indicated that the Gold+ program might eventually incorporate artificial intelligence to replace some security officers.

Kelley stated, "The Trump administration’s clear objective is to ultimately privatize all aviation security screening functions, and we don’t have to theorize about what that may look like because we have been through this before and witnessed the devastating and deadly consequences."

Sources