TSA cuts airport screeners

WASHINGTON - The government announced plans Wednesday to eliminate 3,000 more airport screening jobs by the end of September, including 144 at Tampa International Airport and 25 at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport.

The cuts, coupled with 3,000 others announced in March, total about 11 percent of the 55,600 screeners employed. The moves will save the Transportation Security Administration an estimated $280-million, director James Loy said.

The first 3,000 cuts will be made by May 31, the rest by Sept. 30. Loy said the TSA will try to trim the work force through attrition and making some workers part time.

Loy said the cuts won't diminish security, though it's possible they could add some time to the screening process. A 10-minute wait limit is still the goal, he said.

Airline security advocate Paul Hudson said the job cuts would compromise airport security unless the TSA improves other parts of the system, such as installing more bomb-detection machines.

"These labor cutbacks - unless they're coupled with some other measures to compensate to improve the system further - they will result in an overall reduction in security," said Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project.

The TSA said it plans to commit about $1-billion for permanent installation of big bomb-detection machines this year.

The job cuts address critics in Congress, mainly Republicans, who believe the TSA grew too large too fast. To get around a congressionally mandated cap of 45,000 full-time screeners the TSA hired 9,000 "temporary" workers, most of whom were given five-year contracts.

The cuts will reduce the number of screeners at Tampa International from 828 to 684. St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport will go from 102 to 77. All of the cuts will be made by May 31. More are possible before September, but TSA spokeswoman Lauren Stover said she didn't expect a lot of additional change at TIA.

"We hired screeners thinking we would lose a lot, but the retention rate was a lot higher than we expected," Stover said. "So we're right-sizing ourselves."

- Times staff writer Jean Heller contributed to this report.

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