Workers Suffer as Airports Shutter

By Nicholas Prejean

Airport workers continue to feel pinched as the funding for airport screening with workers at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) remains frozen for now over five weeks. Over 50,000 workers are in the second stretch of work without pay in the last 6 months. In fall 2025, there was a 43-day shutdown that forced workers to work for over 50 days without pay.

TSA workers are classified as “Emergency Response Officials”, so even when there is a government shutdown or funding lapse, they still have to show up to work. TSA is also on a different pay system from the rest of the federal workers that pays much less. This is by design when the agency was formed in the wake of September 11, 2001. The TSA only recently won the right to collective bargaining in court and there is legislation to pay them at the same pay system of other federal workers. These victories have been rolled back by the Trump regime as it wages its war on workers.

Over 370 workers have quit since the current shutdown began. Others have taken side work either in gig economy jobs or selling plasma just to make ends meet and pay bills. Workers are frustrated as they are being run to exhaustion with no pay. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Agency the TSA is under, has issued letters to workers asking creditors for leniency or late fees to be waived, though workers are finding those inefficient in the second shutdown as some are sleeping out of their vehicles, bank accounts overdrawn, empty pantries and refrigerators, and evictions from homes.

Airports have opened food pantries, donation centers, and are now asking travelers for donations. Officials have warned that some smaller airports “may be shut down” as about 10% of the TSA workers have failed to show for work daily.

Politicians in Congress have offered no help as both Democrats and Republicans blame each other and have put forward proposals to pay workers but no progress has been made yet. The Trump regime engages in violations of the Hatch Act by blaming the shutdown on political opponents, but offers no concrete solutions. Federal workers are barred by law from striking courtesy of Ronald Reagan firing striking air traffic controllers in the 1980s.

LUEL calls on elected officials to pay workers a fair wage during this shutdown in an industry that is important for everyone. Airports have wide-reaching effects on their local area, and slowdowns and shutdowns hurt American workers. The way forward for workers in the airline industry is to band together in a mass anti-monopoly coalition with the other airport workers, pilots, flight attendants, and others to demand the monopoly capitalists pay workers a fair and just wage even during a government shutdown. Workers must join together in mass action to put pressure on those that hold the economy and workers hostage.