Security screeners left out in the cold

PHILADELPHIA - Orlinda Vencia lost her job as an airport screener on Wednesday after 14 years of stellar performance. Like many workers at the nation’s 429 airports, Vencia lost her job not because she has done anything wrong, but because she can’t meet post-Sept. 11 standards set by Congress. In the case of Vencia, who arrived in this country in 1988 from the Philippines and is now a U.S. citizen, her failure to meet new requirements for English proficiency got her fired. “I am so upset today and have no idea what to do about my five children,” the 56-year-old single mother said. “I cannot think of any immediate solution.”

VENCIA HAD WORKED as a screener at Oakland’s airport almost from the moment she and her ex-husband arrived in America. She understands the concern about safety after the attacks, but she is angry at her treatment.

“I am a U. S. citizen and therefore eligible to take the tests, but I could not clear them,” she said.

Vencia is not alone. All over the country, screeners with otherwise excellent performance records are losing jobs to new federal security screeners.

“Today I reached work at 3 a.m. and then they said that I don’t have my job any longer,” said Victoria, a security screener at the San Francisco airport who wanted her last name kept private. “It is my workday and all of a sudden they say that I don’t have a job. They should have at least told us (beforehand).”

LOOMING DEADLINE

Congress gave the Transportation Safety Administration until Nov. 19 to convert all airport security screeners across the country to federal employee status — which means meeting a whole new set of qualifications. Under the new standards, airport security screeners must be U.S. citizens, have a high school diploma or equivalency degree, and then they must pass computer-based tests including one for language proficiency.

The TSA, itself the product of new legislation on aviation safety, already has hired 50,000 employees under the new rules — personnel who have replaced the pre-existing staff at airports. Out of 50,000, only 9,536, or 18.9, percent are ex-airport employees.

“I switched jobs about eight months ago to work as a security personnel at the airport. I was enjoying my work here,” Victoria said. “All of a sudden I have been informed today that I failed the language proficiency test. I have no idea why they failed me.”

STRICTER STANDARDS

Jim Berard, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, defended the new standards for hiring screeners.

“After several debates and discussions the committee concluded that the aviation security needed a much higher standard than they had in the past. To ensure a better and more professional surveillance, the committee mandated that the candidates seeking jobs for airports take a four-hour exam and undergo a total of 104 hours of rigorous training in the classroom as well as on the job.”

But some former workers believe they are being unfairly singled out.

Andrea Gonsalves, 24, came to America from Guatemala and has been working as an airport screener at the Los Angeles airport.

“I have lived in this country for six years while my mother has been here for the last 17 years,” she said. “But because I am still a legal permanent resident and not a citizen, I cannot take the tests for being recruited as a screener.”

Congress does not believe the citizenship requirement is unfair, Bernard said, in part because that would be a criterion for getting a federal job anyway. He pointed to “the strong sentiments involved due to the fact that the United States was attacked by foreign nationals using our own airlines.”

Not all agree, however, most notably, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat picked by her party as their new leader in the House. Pelosi, whose San Francisco district is one of the most ethnically diverse in the nation, has campaigned against the citizenship requirement.

She points to the irony in the existing laws that single out screeners when insisting on the nationality criteria for ensuring safety of airports.

“It makes no sense that pilots, flight attendants and even members of the National Guard protecting our airports can be legal permanent residents, but screeners have to be U.S. citizens,” said Pelosi. “I will keep pushing to roll back the citizenship requirement for screeners and to insist that the Immigration and Naturalization Service move more quickly to naturalize permanent legal residents. But in the meantime, we must set programs in place to help workers find new jobs.”

MASS DISPLACEMENT

Some 900 people lost jobs at the Los Angeles airport; more than half of them did not meet the citizenship qualification. Only 300 screeners at the airport were re-employed as federal screeners; 400 security professionals either did not pass the tests or did not meet the educational qualifications.

“I had thought that I would clear the test but did not,” said one screener. “I am being trained at a local community college with financial assistance from the workers resource center formed to help out displaced screeners like me. But I can not take the test again before six months have expired.”

Annie Sayo, a board member of Forwarding Opportunities in Communities through Upliftment, said, “They are required to pass a test working on MS Word which they never use while they are on their job. We are training them to take that ESL test.”

Vidushi Sinha is an intern working with MSNBC.com this fall.