(Washington Post) Training Daze at The TSA

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... But the media reports leave out one important element: training. It's not surprising that travelers face apparently inconsistent searches by passenger screeners when you consider the TSA's negligence in complying with the congressional mandate that screeners receive three hours of training each week.
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Before each shift, screeners attend a briefing, which is goes down in the books as training time. In my case, on C Pier at BWI, 25 to 30 screeners attend a briefing in a room that measures 12 by 14 feet; most are standing and at least 10 of us have to listen from outside the door. Many trainers seem unprepared for questions and appear to have no training experience. Some are downright belligerent. Recently, when a screener complained that a new procedure for detecting trace amounts of explosives put him at risk, he was told that he took the job knowing that it involved risks and that if we didn't follow each procedure to the letter, we could be terminated without notice. Eventually the trainer burst into tears at screeners' continued questioning.

That is an extreme case, though. Typically we are told that trainers are simply reading the briefing materials when they answer our questions, indicating to me that they don't understand the information themselves.

The TSA will not allow screeners time off from their checkpoints for training because many airports are severely understaffed. The agency did not plan properly for the loss, a little over a year ago, of nearly half its screening workforce to the task of inspecting checked baggage. Moreover, although our federal security director recently was awarded a $20,000 bonus, the TSA apparently lost its training rooms at BWI because it was unable to pay rent on them. Even the rooms where we take our breaks, which also serve as training rooms, may soon be lost. At the TSA's headquarters, meanwhile, workers enjoy the use of a private gym, so apparently money isn't scarce everywhere.

The new personnel system has caused an attrition rate of more than 20 percent this year, according to sources inside the agency. Who would want a job in which you are told you have to be perfect every time or people may die? Who would want a job in which passengers can be belligerent and at times may physically assault screeners, while management appears to be primarily concerned with passengers' customer service experience?

We are not covered by most laws that protect the federal workforce. We are not permitted collective bargaining rights, although the Transportation Security Administration is officially neutral on private screeners' having such rights. This leaves screeners vulnerable to cronyism, favoritism and arbitrary disciplinary actions -- just the sort of abuses the civil service system was created to prevent. Incredibly, the TSA's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, is considering a similar personnel system.

Full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41820-2004Dec6.html?nav%3Dhcmodule&sub=AR