Why San Jose TSA officers say the city, airport is “rubber-stamping inequality”

Just weeks before the holiday season begins, employees at Mineta San Jose International Airport have learned that their parking spots will be relocated, adding at least 30 minutes to their commute each way.

Due to an expected increase in passengers and lack of capacity, airport officials decided late last month to provide nearly 1,000 employee parking spots, which are close to the terminals, to passengers instead.

“Airport passengers choose (San Jose International Airport) for its convenience and ease of use. The competitive advantage and reputation that SJC maintains could be negatively affected with continued parking shortages, especially when this close-in public parking alternative is available,” Airport Director John Aitken wrote this week in a memo to the city council.

Transportation Security Administration officers, who earn a starting salary of about $21 an hour, say the last-minute notification is unjust.

“This is a problem the city created because of their lack of planning,” said Carolyn Bauer, a TSA officer at the airport for the past 11 years and the union’s legislative political coordinator. “And their solution to make money is to take away the nearby parking for the low-level, low-paid employees who have two jobs and have to live with families to make ends meet.”

The number of passengers traveling through the San Jose International Airport has skyrocketed in recent years, reaching nearly 15 million passengers in the past year.

That unprecedented growth had led the airport to expand its facilities, including an interim gates facility that closed about 500 parking spaces and the upcoming construction of a new parking garage that will close another 770 spaces for travelers.

“The bottom line is that as an airport, our traveling passengers are our bread and butter,” said Rosemary Barnes, public information manager for the airport. “That is who is creating all of these jobs. They are everyone’s priority and we need to focus on them.”

But workers like Amanda Macias, a 30-year-old TSA officer, who lives with her ailing mom in Hollister and commutes nearly three hours every day, doesn’t exactly see it that way.

Despite weeks of missing paychecks during the government shutdown earlier this year, Macias continued to show up. She spent weeks living off her credit cards and standing in line at food banks in order to feed her and her mom.

Macias says the new parking relocation stands in the face of how essential airport operators told them they were during the shutdown.

“If we’re that important that during a government shutdown we’re required to work without pay, then I feel like we’re just as important to receive something as simple as parking to make sure that we’re there and available for those that need us,” she said, adding that she’s still recouping from her losses of nearly a year ago.

Airport employees, including TSA officers like Macias, will now need to park in a lot about 10 minutes farther than their current parking lot, walk to the designated shuttle bus pick up areas in the lot and wait for a shuttle bus to transport them an additional 10 minutes to work from there.

TSA agents, many of whom start or end shifts in the middle of the night, have raised concerns about their safety, additional commute times that will translate to less sleep and last-minute arrangements they are now scrambling to make, including additional childcare and elderly care.

“I know it might not seem like a lot to people, but if we’re not 100%, if we’re sleep-deprived, if we feel that we’re not being valued, I’m concerned about how that will affect the traveling public and their safety,” Macias said.

Although airport and city officials have been evaluating the parking situation for months, Columbus Day weekend was really the tipping point, according to Barnes.

During that weekend, all six of the airport’s parking facilities — totaling nearly 5,000 spaces — were full for more than seven hours, according to airport data. The airport was forced to notify passengers that they would need to find other means to get to their flights.

Shannon Thomas, a Bay Area resident who parks at the airport about five times a year when she goes away on trips, said she would be frustrated if she was one of those passengers turned away. While she would be open to a shuttle parking system like the one offered at the San Francisco International Airport, she said she “much prefers San Jose.”

“It’s a quick in and out here, which makes it super easy and efficient,” Thomas said. “I really appreciate that.”

The employee buses, which will run every 10-12 minutes, will drive on a designated frontage road that will not be used by any other vehicles. During peak hours, the airport plans to run extra buses so that employees won’t be late to work and won’t have to wait longer to get home, Barnes said.

A security guard will patrol the lot at all times and officers from the San Jose Police Department will add the lot to their routine airport patrols.

“We did not make this decision hastily,” Barnes said. “We know it’s not perfect, but we’re doing everything we can to make this adjustment as easy as possible for our team members.”

Still, some TSA officers remain concerned about their safety and the fact that one security officer will be in charge of patrolling a poorly-lit parking lot of 1,000 vehicles.

“If you’re sitting in a vehicle, how are you going to hear me screaming and getting attacked from the other side of the parking lot?” said Carolyn Bauer, a TSA officer at the airport for the past 11 years and the union’s legislative political coordinator. “We don’t feel safe, we don’t feel secure and we don’t feel valued.

“Inequality is being made and rubber-stamped by the city because they don’t care about us and our safety.”

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