Posted on 11/24/2001 9:24:45 PM PST by KQQL
San Francisco Airport Workers Upset They May Lose Jobs Over Citizenship
By Karen Gaudette Associated Press Writer
Published: Nov 24, 2001
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Security screeners at San Francisco International Airport are upset that they could lose their jobs under a new federal law requiring them to gain U.S. citizenship, and the city's mayor has offered to intervene. Some workers have threatened a sickout Sunday that could create kinks as travelers return from the biggest travel weekend of the year. But airport and union officials said the majority of workers were expected to report to work.
"We understand from the union that they're confident there won't be any type of action," airport duty manager Bob Rotiski said Saturday. "The union has a good feel for what the employees are going to do, and they've assured us that they're not going to walk out."
SFO spokesman Ron Wilson said workers' supervisors would fill in for employees who do not come to work.
The new federal law requires all security screeners to become U.S. citizens within a year. Leaders of Service Employees International Union Local 790 say as many as 80 percent of the 1,200 screeners at SFO are legal residents, not citizens. Those not already on the cusp of attaining citizenship could lose their jobs, said Daz Lampares, SFO representative for the union.
Union leaders say they hope workers stay on the job Sunday and let SFO director John Martin and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown negotiate with Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta on a plan that would allow the busiest airports to employ some non-citizens.
The mayor "has definitely indicated he would try to talk with federal officials," said Brown's spokesman, P.J. Johnston. "This is not a typical labor issue where the workers have a beef with management. This is a situation that's been handed down from the federal government."
Johnston said no meeting has been scheduled and he is unsure what type of plan Brown would submit.
Wilson said airport officials empathize with the workers, but worry a walkout would shut down the airport and hurt chances of a compromise.
AP-ES-11-24-01 2054EST
I'm sure that I am not the only one who stopped reading after this.
AM I READING THIS RIGHT??
Up to nine-hundred-and-sixty (960) SFO screeners are still FOREIGN CITIZENS!? Wow.
The "real Americans;" whose "jobs Americans won't do" were stolen from them by criminal aliens; had "jobs" created for them by the in-the-hands-of-the-vast-criminal-enterprises-usually-referred-to-as-the-"Democratic"-party feral gummint.
At the INS.
The staff at the INS; that is; are the very folks who used to pick lettuce, flip burgers, wipe off wet cars in service stations and load bags into airplanes before we dumbed down the specs for all those kinds of jobs.
[And inched America closer to becoming part of the turd wurld]
Just a thought in passing, does their becoming federal workers mean that President Bush can fire them all if they strike like Reagan fired all the PATCO air traffic controllers that struck back in the early 80's?
The other day I tried to get temporary work at a place called 'Labor Ready.' I was informed they had more jobs than people, and if I showed up early, I would get a job.
I showed up at five thirty (AM), and waited until nine thirty. I never got a job.
Meanwhile, I suspect certain 'non-citizens' (you know who they are!) were getting priority over me.
These were jobs to work in the cold wet mud. Not high paying at all!
Yet we're told over and over again that the immigrants are here because Americans won't work at these jobs. Funny, I saw a lot of Americans waiting in that room with me!
Now we have a situation where non-citizens get priority hiring and even have a union under their control. In a job where the safety and security of American lives are at stake.
We have truly entered the Twilight Zone. I suspect the government's response to this airport security problem will be to quietly issue a waiver allowing the non-citizens to work for the federal government -- or just pretend the problem isn't there.
Meantime, people as white as Winston Churchill will be shaken down and forced to 'dance' under the scanning wands each time they travel by plane. That didn't stop 587 from blowing up, did it?
Moreover, not only should they lose their jobs, if they're here illegally, they should be deported post haste.
I am an airport screener supervisor and I am not an idiot.
Am I the only one who sees a problem with 80% of airport security screners being other than US citizens? This fact alone is reason enough not to fly or even set foot in an airport.
Does anyone think they could find another country where foreigners run 80% of anything?
Sorry, but the safety and security of the public, if not the security of the entire country comes first. Its necessary, and the Mayors office shouldnt be intervening.
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