The answers to your questions!

There are no dual function screeners at SFO.

There are no "Leads" in the baggage community.

The answer is: Absolutely Not!

The question:  Should a for-profit, private contractor be responsible for the checkpoint and checked baggage security at SFO?

How has a company, whose main focus is generating a "profit", survived for so long? 

In the almost 10 years that CAS has been at SFO, they have never been able to have a schedule that matches operational needs.  Year after year, they just can't seem to get the hang of it.

Management likes to say that the daily movement of personnel is "flexibility" and a credit to their managerial skills.  We employees see it as just another managerial miscue.  Clearly they are clueless! ( The need for countless hours of overtime is a testimony to their ineptitude! )

United Airlines leaving T3...

We have heard that United is leaving T3 in June and will occupy the old ticket counters of Continental Airlines in T1.

Can Pier B handle the extra passenger traffic? We hope that all this has been well planned out.

Let's cross our fingers.

"Take your time!"

It is more important than ever to take your time. We all need to take our time and to follow the SOP to the letter. Do the job as safely and professionally as we all should.

There has been a credible, but non specific threat announced today and, if anyone needed a reason to exercise more care this is your wake up call. Remain vigilant even after the 10 year anniversary of the events of 9/11 have passed. The life you save could be your own!

Union Dues!

Most of you are not aware that there are 2 types of union membership. The type that the union loves is the "full" 1.8 percent membership.

The type that they hate is the limited membership and that is at a 1.2 percent. We know that most of the CTX community is paying 1.2 percent.

SEIU has been telling the baggage community that they really don't have a voice and in order to get a voice they need to become full 1.8 percent members. Just how dumb do they think they are? To our knowledge, no one in the baggage community is buying what they are selling.

Now, the question is, what have they done to deserve your 1.8 percent dues? Zilch, Nada, Squat!

The best way to show them that we are unhappy is to have more of us switch to the lower rate of 1.2 percent. We need to voice our displeasure more obviously and forcefully. It's easy to do, just call the EAC and tell them that you want to change.

Draw a line in the sand! Stop paying these 1.8 percent dues for such shabby treatment.

What do we take away from what happened in HNL?

This should serve as a reminder that we are here to provide security. Don't let the size of the line or the amount of baggage waiting to be screened cause you to be less thorough.

We need to follow the SOP 100%! Do what we were hired to do and protect yourself from losing your job. Let's control the things that we can control. Staffing and scheduling issues are beyond our control; that's the responsibility of management.

As a private contractor in the TSA world we are watched more carefully, especially now since Rep. John Mica is pushing for drastic changes at the TSA.

"A word to the wise should be sufficient."

National Opt Out Day

As most should know by now, today is the day. Will there be even more massively long lines than usual? We should know in a couple of hours. TSA/CAS will be attempting to have two lines at those checkpoints with the AIT. One for those that want to go through the naked body scanner, and one for those that are opting out.

We will say this for those that want to know. We know of no TSO/LTSO/STSO that actually enjoys looking at the images or of any Officer that enjoys performing the new pat downs. Most either just suck it up and do it or begrudgingly do it. It's not a pleasurable thing for Officers either way. It's just our job.

As generally the case with a hierarchical structure such as the TSA, the orders come from the top and work their way down to the men and women on the front lines. If we refuse to do it, we could lose our job, since it is considered part of our job. So if you're a member of the flying public, keep that in mind before you decide to tear in to an Officer for doing their job. What we do recommend is that you write a formal letter of complaint to TSA, DHS, the Whitehouse, and your congressman or congresswoman.

I can only speak for myself on this issue, and I know that I am in the minority with most of my co-workers in saying that I think the AIT as well as these new pat down procedures to be ludicrous. If, as Janet Napolitano and John Pistole are saying that it's necessary for security, then why did it take TSA 10 months to implement the new pat down procedures? Why did TSA react to the Yemen threat by banning printer cartridges of a certain size when any number of things that come through a check point could contain an IED?

These are the types of questions that the media should be asking of Napolitano and Pistole. Congress should be demanding answers to these questions. TSA spent $45 million dollars over two year ago attempting to implement Checkpoint Evolution in which one of the stated things was to become more proactive and not reactive. Once again, why have all of TSA's latest actions not only been reactive, but downright overreactive?

TSA has become a bloated behemoth of a monster. I know that I differ with some of my fellow contributors to this blog when I state that replacing Covenant Aviation Security with TSA at SFO is simply not the panacea that many think it will be. To replace one incompetent bureaucracy (CAS) with an even larger incompetent bureaucracy (TSA) hardly seems worthwhile. And just who is TSA accountable to when they screw up?

September Madness

Once again we are getting a shining example of CAS management at their finest. The employee movements at both Checkpoint and Checked Baggage are in full swing. Available PTO slots for the month of September have vanished. Once again Operational needs outweigh our need to spend time with our families. Once again we are not suppose to have a life.

With the staffing levels so low we are asked once again to make up for the ineptitude of our wonderful management team. At what point will CAS admit to, what the rest of us already know, the fact that the people we have doing the job of scheduling need to be replaced? What has to happen for these realizations and revelations to hit them squarely over the head? Nothing has changed! These people are the new "Untouchables".

CAS will never admit that they made a mistake, so, let's just keep things the way that they are, maybe nobody will notice. Don't worry, we will gladly point out to you the deficiencies that we see in your managerial skills.

Get the staffing levels to the proper level. Live up to your contractual obligations that you have with TSA. Open up the overtime slots and stop trying to make it so we are all dog tired. We are reaching the breaking point.

When will TSA step in and do something about this!

John Pistole drops by SFO

John Pistole, the newly appointed head of TSA, is making an appearance today at SFO. Perhaps we should all tell him that John Gage, the head of AFGE, has it all wrong when he stated that workers at SFO were content simply because we are covered by a union contract.

Or maybe we should let him know that his predecessor's supposed legacy of the Checkpoint Evolution program is not only not being used, but is actually being discouraged by Covenant Aviation Security management.

There are a whole host of things we could talk to him about. Will he be a typical bureaucrat or someone who wants to improve things? We're going to go with the former.

"We think we do a great job with training and scheduling"

"Well, you know, we are trained -- and you talked about it, we're trained at same standard operating procedures. We think we do a great job with scheduling and training. Training is our forte, training and experience. We've been able to keep screeners for a long time. We have 600 of the original 1,000 in San Francisco. We're happy with that. It comes down to training and experience. If you can keep your screeners, you will do well." - Gerry Berry, December 28, 2009


Ok, so must we ask the obvious question here? This quote is from Gerry Berry that he gave with David Asman on the Fox News Channel shortly after the Christmas underwear bomber attempt. Asman's segment that night was about the possible unionization of airport TSOs. We'll leave that subject to the rest of you to decide.


What is most interesting is the apparent illusion that Mr. Berry is under that CAS does not a good, but great job with training and scheduling. And where does he get this number that 600 of the original 1,000 are still there? While we don't have any hard numbers in front of us, that seems not very accurate.


Asman goes on to press him about flexibility and judgment calls, something that was started by TSA with Engage! and Coach! about two years ago. Berry gets backed in to a corner and implies that at CAS there really isn't any of that going on.


Ah yes, folks! I really hope that you haven't forgotten about Engage! This was that program that we all went through for two days (four days if you had to attend Coach!) where it was impressed upon us to use our gut and make judgment calls, all for the betterment of security. We all know, though, that CAS doesn't practice that at all. In fact, it's business as usual and quite the opposite. We get someone like Donnie Filbert, who doesn't know the SOP very well, instating procedures that AREN'T SOP, yet claiming they are. We all know that CAS does not allow for any flexibility at all!


We'll avoid getting into the discussion of SOP in specifics since we can not allow any SSI discussion here. But we all know that flexibility is not part of CAS's vocabulary and Berry is even more out of the loop if he really thinks there is.


You can all read the transcript from the original interview here. Skip to page 4 if you want to get to the Gerry Berry interview.