Growing Militancy Among Struggling TSA Workers
For a second time in six months, tens of thousands of federal workers are being forced to work for free while the theatrics of out-of-touch politicians and union leaders plays out in the daily news. At a time that costs of every day life have risen to a crushing burden, the US government expects workers to patiently wait while continuing to provide their labor to keep the system moving.
At Chicago’s O’Hare airport, TSA employees describe this latest funding shut-down as wholly confusing, enraging, and stressful. The stated reasons for the lapse in funding is tied to congressional feuds over funding packages for The Department of Homeland Security, namely the funds supporting shock troop ICE operations. The issue here is, ICE has already been funded for several years within the Big Beautiful Bill. For TSA workers who do not see themselves as ICE or their duties as being comparable whatsoever, this shut down “makes no sense” and contributes significantly to a growing discontent.
Working for one of the nation’s busiest travel hubs isn’t easy on the mind and body, even when the paychecks arrive on time. Add the absence of stable incomes, the stress of performing the job compounds with figuring out how to survive day by day. A recent executive order issued by the Trump Administration aimed to bring workers some relief by releasing overdue pay but those “checks barely cover money already spent” due to months of mounting debts, soaring rents, and paying oppressive prices for food and gas.
Over the past few months TSA workers have increased call-offs and utilized extended sick-time, leading to strains on airport security and cancellations of thousands of flights. For the workers their approach is two-fold: Freeing themselves to seek much-needed income through gig work and to flex their labor power. The workers intimately understand, and frequently discuss among themselves, that they have the ability to “make the system hurt” and demand more by withholding their labor. This growing militancy among the workforce goes beyond the demands of the labor leaders charged with protecting their interests.
Labor leaders of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), representing some 800 thousand federal workers, have limited their approach to seeking concessions from congress on the issue of lost pay. In a statement issued April 6th, AFGE demanded congress “come back to Washington [and do their] job” to secure DHS funding. In response to this statement, as one worker put it: “I do not feel supported by [the union] in this current situation. What’s the point of having an absent union to send dues to?” In stark contrast to the workers’ own understanding and desire to wield their labor power, the union simply wants a return to usual business; laying bare their alliance with the bosses and aversion to anything that would upset capital markets.
The growing militancy among the struggling TSA workers is significant and evolving beyond the demands made by their union representation. This displays for us how capitalism lays bare its inability to provide for our standards of living and reveals the nature of those in alliance with it. This militancy among struggling workers must be developed, organized, and lead with the goal of ending capitalism as its north star. To end capitalism is to end our continued exploitation, our mistreatment in the workplaces, and the coercion to work a life-time of wage-labor for bare survival.