00:00We want to bring in Jill Dejanovic. She's a TSA worker in Las Vegas and the Nevada Union
00:04representative. Jill, first of all, I just want to check in on you. How are you doing? I know
00:09you've got kids. I know I can't imagine how tough this has been, missing a paycheck. Just bring us
00:14up to date about how you're doing and what your frustrations are. Well, yeah, definitely very,
00:20very frustrated. We are incredibly thankful that Trump did put out the executive order that
00:25we're supposedly start to be paid on Monday. We're supposed to get our back pay only,
00:30nothing continuing on. So while we are thankful and we're grateful that we will supposedly be
00:36getting that, it's really just a temporary Band-Aid because we're not going to be paid from here on
00:40out. It's just our back pay. So essentially, we're just resetting the clock. What has the
00:46conversation been like among you and your colleagues as all of this has unfolded? We've
00:49seen the numbers of those who have left, decided to quit or haven't gone to work because they haven't
00:53been getting paychecks. What have you been talking about with your colleagues about how this has gone
00:57and what it says just about the state of the government, the state of the agency?
01:02It's frustrating because this is the third time that this has happened in five months.
01:07And because it keeps happening, we're just wondering what that means for the future of our
01:12agency. You know, privatization has been thrown out there a lot. It's been being talked about a lot
01:17more. And the fact that they're so easily able to shut us down, we are frankly just worried about our
01:21jobs in the future. Is there any concern about this impacting the safety of the flying public?
01:28I know that the workers who are on the job are doing their absolute best, but, you know,
01:32about 40 percent of workers have called in sick across the country. According to the AP,
01:36there's about 500 TSA workers who reportedly have quit due to lack of payment and frustration.
01:41At some point, is this going to start impacting safety or are we there already?
01:46No, I don't think safety is going to be affected because we still do have our very dedicated officers
01:51that are on the job serving the public. However, those lines will continue to go up the more that
01:57we lose officers and the more that people call out. So it'll just take a lot longer and people
02:01end up missing their flights more because of it.
02:03Jill, what's it been like having ICE agents deployed in the airports? I think when that was first announced,
02:08something that we were talking about on the show is what would that look like? Would they be doing
02:11some of the work that you and your colleagues do? Are they working alongside you or with you
02:16just on a very granular level? What has it been like having them in the airports?
02:21Well, we haven't actually had them deployed in Las Vegas because our lines haven't been that long.
02:26However, because they aren't trained to do our jobs, I don't know how much help they would actually be.
02:31Essentially, they would be delegated to roles serving out in the queue, moving traffic, pushing it around,
02:38helping passengers divest items from their bags. Essentially, I don't know how helpful that would
02:43be to us because, again, they aren't trained to do our jobs like we are. So they aren't properly
02:49able to help passengers divest items from their bags, thus leading to more bag checks on our end
02:54while we are actually screening that luggage.
02:56And that's kind of what we're seeing for our audio listeners is ICE agents, they are in the airport,
03:01but even in the video we're watching right now, they're mostly ushering traffic through those,
03:04I don't know what they're called, those Disney World-style rope lines that we all have to go
03:08through so much of our lives. I also want to ask you, tell us how long you've been with TSA.
03:13And look, it's a tough job. People at airports are cranky. I always try to be nice. Not everyone
03:17tries to be nice. I'm sure. I can be nice, just not to you. I love my TSA agents that
03:23are nice to you.
03:25But it's a tough job. It takes skill and it takes patience, and it has to be stressful. And I
03:31would
03:31imagine adding this kind of stress and uncertainty to a job that people probably went to looking for
03:36security and sustainability in their lives has to undercut the desire to do this job and for
03:42recruitment. Do you have any concerns long-term about people wanting to be or stay TSA agents?
03:49Definitely. I have been with TSA for almost three years now, and so this is my first real experience
03:54going through this. It is just like we are living in a twilight zone right now. It is crazy to
03:59me that
03:59this is happening. I did not expect that this would happen when I initially signed on to federal
04:04service three years ago. I believed that this would be a nice, safe, secure career job for me.
04:10I thought it was a great opportunity. With recruitment, I believe that people will be coming
04:15in and they will be cognizant of the fact that, yes, this is an agency that can be shut down
04:21very
04:22easily. And so I don't know that we would get the highest quality of people that we normally would
04:26have because of that. Jill, I want to ask you where all this is headed. You brought up the specter
04:30of
04:30privatization a moment ago, and I've noticed, I'm sure you have editorials and newspapers,
04:35articles being written about how at some airports that do have private security, there haven't been
04:40these lines. There's an effort here to make it seem like that might be the solution going forward.
04:45I'm very curious sort of how worried that makes you and you being a representative of your union,
04:50sort of what you were doing to make the case that that should not be the route that this country
04:53goes down. With privatization, that is going to be a for-profit model. I don't believe that
05:00aviation security should ever be a for-profit model. The beauty of it being a federal program
05:06is that you're not there to make money. You're there to screen passengers and share the highest
05:11levels of security. That is my biggest fear with going private, that these private screening
05:16companies would come in and they would cut costs wherever they can, whether that be with training,
05:20whether that be with background checks, whether that would be with hiring and implementing new
05:26equipment and programs. So that is my biggest concern with that is that they would be here to make
05:31money rather than to actually do the job that we're here to put forth, which is to screen passengers
05:36and luggage and keep America safe. All right.
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