Airport security officers are losing their seats—literally. The Transportation Security Administration is pulling chairs from ID-check stations at US airports, saying officers should be on their feet to boost alertness, security, and "hospitality," reports Reuters. The union representing TSA workers is blasting the change as a threat to the health and safety of officers who already stand and walk on hard floors all day. "This disregard for employee rights and safety is an example of a broad pattern of TSA's true consideration of the employees who keep our nation safe," says the American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council 100, per ABC News.
The shift comes as President Trump pushes to shrink TSA's budget by about 20%, cut thousands of jobs, and shift smaller airports to private security firms—a step toward broader privatization of the post-9/11 agency. The Senate recently confirmed David Cummins, an executive from UK-based contractor Serco, to lead TSA after a 16-month vacancy and a shutdown that left tens of thousands of TSA staff unpaid for six weeks. In a recent statement, Cummins says he has the task of "modernizing TSA" and will work to deliver "a secure checkpoint, an efficient checkpoint, and an elevated passenger experience." The union says it wasn't told about the removal of chairs in advance, with members simply seeing them pulled from their stations, per CNN.
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