TSA agent: Officers are 'sick and tired of being political pawns'

[0:00] Joining me now is Johnny Jones, a TSA officer who serves as president of the American Federation [0:05] of Government Employees Local 1040 and secretary treasurer of AFGE TSA Council 100. Welcome to you, [0:13] Johnny. I understand you are currently at a food truck offering meals to TSA agents who are feeling [0:19] this financial burden of not getting a full paycheck in 42 days now. President Trump said [0:26] yesterday that he will sign an executive order directing TSA officers to get paid immediately. [0:32] First of all, Johnny, have you heard anything about how soon that money could hit bank accounts? [0:37] I'm being told right now. Well, first of all, thank you for having me. We are at a food truck [0:42] location. We're donating food to our TSA officers. They're paying to work every single day. [0:47] Their bank checks are empty. Their bank accounts are empty. But they're saying that we might get [0:53] paid sometime early next week. But these guys are struggling. They're [0:58] struggling. They're struggling. They're struggling. They're struggling. They're struggling. They're [0:58] suffering. There's a real crisis of bacon and meat. This is a horrible situation for these [1:05] officers. And we've been hearing horror stories about TSA officers having to go out and sell [1:11] blood and plasma just to put food on the table. Is that what you're hearing, too? [1:19] Yes, most definitely. People are selling plasma. I was talking to a couple of them. They sold [1:25] plasma the day before they came to the food truck. So, yeah, there's definite issues there [1:29] with people losing money. They don't have anything. [1:31] They don't have anything for their families. But we have hundreds and hundreds of officers [1:34] outside getting donations from the North Texas Food Bank. And they're trying to fill up their [1:40] grocery pantries. You know, Johnny, it must feel kind of like a yo-yo, and not a good one, [1:47] by the way, because this is not a game. I'm curious your reaction to the latest negotiations [1:51] surrounding the deal to end the shutdown. First, we hear that the Senate has a unanimous agreement. [1:57] Then you hear that Mike Johnson and the Republicans are calling what they put forth [2:02] as a crap sandwich. And they now say, we might put something forward that would fund TSA and [2:08] Department of Homeland Security for eight weeks. And yet we have just heard during this interview [2:13] that Chuck Schumer says, you put that back in the Senate, it's DOA, dead on arrival. [2:21] What's your reaction to all this? [2:22] Well, that's very disheartening for the officers. They're sick and tired of being [2:24] political pawns across the aisle. You know, we're going into our third missed paycheck this weekend. [2:30] You know, people got a very small paycheck. [2:33] At the beginning of the shutdown, which was like 25% of their usual pay. [2:38] If they end up doing this, it's going to be very difficult for me to tell the officer to be able to, [2:43] they're going to be struggling. These guys are going to be having a great time. [2:47] I'm disappointed to hear that these guys are playing the games. They had a deal in the Senate. [2:53] They need to go and pass what they had in the Senate, or give a real continued resolution. [2:57] What is this? Johnny, what does this do to the mental health of, [3:06] these TSA officers, the kind of stress that they're facing? They're looking at the long, [3:10] incessant lines. They don't get a break. They're covering for other agents who've had to [3:15] leave their jobs or call out sick to make a point or both. [3:19] What are people telling you? How are they feeling? [3:24] Well, right now, they are starving. They're out of money. They're frustrated. [3:29] They're mental. They have taken mentally. They are so mentally beat down because [3:33] over the last five months, we have went three of those without receiving a paycheck, [3:38] a normal schedule. Over half of this, we're at that 50 percentile for the whole year, [3:43] we haven't received payment. So people are, Bob and Peter to pay Paul. They're trying to, [3:49] it's a real hard balancing act. And, you know, I'm apologizing, filming live from the airport, [3:54] parking lot, giving up. You can hear the planes taking off. We care deeply about our officers, [3:58] and our officers care deeply about their mission. They took a hotel, pulled the Constitution. That's [4:02] what they're doing every single day. Johnny, what do you want to see in terms of change so that TSA [4:09] agents do not have to go back and forth? Well, I think, you know, I think, you know, [4:10] to your point, be political pawns any longer or ever again. [4:17] Yeah, well, right now, TSA officers have paid with their own personal finances [4:22] and their own mental stress. What we need to say now is pay these guys, [4:29] give everybody a $10,000 bonus, make the TSA officers feel like they're really appreciated [4:32] for their sacrifice, because without a doubt, this is a sacrifice. Everything has gone up, [4:37] but these guys really stood strong and uphold their oath to the Constitution of the United States. [4:43] Johnny Jones, hang in there. Best of luck to you. Appreciate you and all you're doing for your [4:50] colleagues there on TSA. Thanks, Johnny.