Against Giants Labor Advocates

10/14/2026

Who will build the software that decides how many TSA Officers work a checkpoint?

TSA has posted a notice inviting companies to an Industry Day on Horizon 25 technology. The first item is the workforce: "predictive scheduling, automated shift and leave bidding, dynamic capacity modeling, workforce accounting." Another would turn checkpoint camera feeds into a digital model of each lane and send "actionable alerts to frontline leadership."

The Administrator has told airport executives what the system is for. He said it will "decide how many TSOs need to be at that checkpoint" and when to open a lane or take one away, and that the software was launched through the Tiger Teams. He said a modernized lane does not need "two people checking driver's license" or two people on each CT, and that TSA is "not going to backfill all of these positions" lost to attrition. TSA's budget request says technology lets the agency operate "with a smaller workforce."

He has also called checkpoint modernization the "carrot" TSA wants to offer airports to join the Screening Partnership Program.

The same notice asks for software to speed up hiring, for a workforce TSA says will be smaller.

Vendors are invited to headquarters to help shape all of it. Nothing in the notice gives officers a say in how it is built.

Against Giants Labor Advocates, LLC

10/14/2026

Who will build the software that sets your schedule?

TSA has posted a notice inviting companies to an Industry Day on Horizon 25 technology. The first item is the workforce: "predictive scheduling, automated shift and leave bidding, dynamic capacity modeling, workforce accounting." A second item would use checkpoint camera feeds to send "actionable alerts to frontline leadership."

The Administrator has already described the same system to airport executives. He said the software is "going to decide how many TSOs need to be at that checkpoint." TSA's budget request already answers part of that question. It says technology and process improvements let the agency "maintain security standards with a smaller workforce."

Vendors are invited to headquarters to help shape it. Nothing in the notice gives officers a say in how it is built.

10/09/2026

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, unless it’s unethical appropriation of original research without attribution.

10/09/2026

TSA posted a notice seeking a computer-based color vision test it can run in-house, with about 26,825 medical exams projected for next fiscal year's hiring. The notice covers applicants. It does not say the tool would be used on currently employed officers, but the revised AMC would permit it.

Color vision is a statutory requirement, and the Annual Medical Certification directive does allow periodic vision testing, so we laid out what the documents say and what they leave open.

Link with full analysis in comments.

10/09/2026

What does your appraisal say about customer service today, and what would it take for someone to say it's not enough?

On October 6 the TSA Administrator said TSA will score customer service at “all 430 airports” and TSO by TSO. An officer with a track record of discourtesy, he said, will not have a job at TSA.

He did not say how the track record is built. The one input he named is airport passenger surveys, which measure the airport, not you, and which you cannot see or dispute.

If you have been counseled on customer interaction, keep your copies with the dates. A track record is built from documents.

Article in the comments.

10/08/2026

TSA Officers have been asking which positions the technology takes. On October 6 the Administrator named two.

The travel document position, because e-gates do the identification check.

And one of the two officers on a CT lane, because image on alarm allows it with one person.

The two officers on a CT lane are the X-ray operator and the physical search officer. Image on alarm only means the machine stops showing every image and surfaces only what alarms. So there is no longer a stream of images needing someone to sit and read them. The dedicated X-ray post is the one that ends.

Full article in comment.

10/07/2026

Your federal career, in the Administrator's accounting, is "maybe some benefit differential."

On October 6 he explained to a room of airport executives why Gold+ failed. The problem was not the workforce change. The problem was that the workforce change was not enough to interest anyone.

His words: "if it's just a matter of yesterday being paid by the federal government with federal benefits, and then today being paid by a private company with private sector benefits, and maybe some benefit differential, but the same number of people doing the same exact thing. The airports, you all were like, well, what really is different, David?"

So the successor adds something. Checkpoint technology, tied to enrollment, extended beyond PreCheck lanes to the standard checkpoint. Plus consolidated lanes, fewer checkpoints, and terminal space handed back.

That is the offer now. Modernized equipment and real estate.

Here is the part the room did not need explained. The same technology is what TSA told Congress in its FY2027 budget lets it eliminate 2,462 officer positions, justified in one sentence about advances in screening technology enabling a smaller workforce.

The thing being offered as the reason to enroll is the thing that reduces how many officers are needed.

All three Gold+ airports said no. They said no to the old proposition.

Link in comments.

10/04/2026

Officers at Harry Reid (LAS): if you have worked the self-service lane at the Innovation Checkpoint, we want to hear from you. Drop us a DM.

10/02/2026

TSA just confirmed it nationally. Chairs are gone from Travel Document Checker podiums across the country, and for the first time TSA gave its own reason: officers "must meet fitness for duty requirements to be capable of performing their vital national security function while simultaneously creating a welcoming and professional environment for travelers" and need to be "on their feet and alert."

That's a different explanation than what officers were told locally when this started, and it's the first time TSA has connected this policy to fitness for duty directly.

Here's why that matters. We've already laid out what happens when an officer can't sustain a standing requirement and requests an accommodation. That process runs through TSA's own policies on who qualifies, who doesn't, and what happens next. TSA calling this a fitness for duty measure means that process isn't hypothetical anymore. It's the agency's own stated reason for the policy, sitting right next to the agency's own rules for what happens to an officer who can't meet it.

AFGE Council 100 says it got no notice before this happened. That's no longer just the union saying it. National reporting has confirmed it independently.

Full breakdown in the comments.

10/02/2026