TSA workers struggle at RDU airport, but they keep coming to work
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- RDU TSA staff keep operations and normal wait times despite unpaid work.
- Employees face financial strain, missing payments and applying for public aid.
- Airport and food bank run aid drives amid DHS funding standoff
TV and social media are full of images these days of long lines at airport security checkpoints, as the partial government shutdown forces Transportation Security Administration officers to work without pay.
But travelers are not experiencing significant delays at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, according to airport and union officials.
“Right now, TSA is running pretty smoothly,” Nina Szlosberg-Landis, vice chair of the Airport Authority board, said during a press conference Tuesday. “We’re really happy that things are going well at RDU.”
Szlosberg-Landis said that during peak hours, RDU travelers are waiting about 10 minutes at TSA Pre-Check lines and 15 to 20 minutes in the standard lines, both about normal. She said absenteeism has not been a big problem at RDU, with more than 90% of TSA employees coming to work each day.
“So our TSA workers are showing up and doing their job and doing it well,” she said.
That’s not to say it’s been easy to keep coming to work without being paid. Mac Johnson, president of the American Federation of Government Employees local that includes RDU, said TSA workers are missing rent and mortgage payments and applying for food stamps and other assistance because of the partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14.
“These are federal employees,” Johnson said. “It’s actually a disgrace that we should be having to go through this.”
Johnson said TSA employees are being threatened with disciplinary action if they don’t show up for work. Johnson and Szlosberg-Landis both said it does not appear federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are being sent to RDU to help with security, as they are in other airports.
“We’re certainly demonstrating that there’s no need for that,” she said. “Our TSA workers are handling things and handling them well.”
RDU and the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina passed out food to TSA employees and their families on Tuesday. Travelers can also help by donating grocery store or gas gift cards at the TSA supervisor podiums at the security checkpoints. (TSA employees cannot accept Visa gift cards or cash.)
“We have people keeping us safe at airports while worrying about their own security and ability to put food on the table at night,” said Amy Beros, the food bank’s president and CEO. “As this shutdown stretches on, we know those pressures compound.”
The TSA is part of the Department of Homeland Security, which Congress cannot agree to fund. Democrats have refused to fund the entire department without reforms to ICE. Republicans have so far been unwilling to fund the TSA and other parts of the department apart from ICE but seemed more willing to negotiate Tuesday, according to The New York Times.
This story was originally published March 24, 2026 at 5:11 PM.
