Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers are among the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are required to work without pay during this partial government shutdown.

But as the shutdown enters its 14th day, the workers are starting to take a stand — by calling in sick.

According to CNN, the numbers are starting to grow: As many as 170 TSA employees at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York called in each day this past week; at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, call-ins have increased by 200 to 300 percent; at North Carolina airports, they have increased by 10 percent.

“This will definitely affect the flying public who we (are) sworn to protect,” Hydrick Thomas, president of the national TSA employee union, told CNN.


Union officials stressed that this is not a mass organized action, but rather a collection of individual responses to the financial inconvenience of working without pay checks. Some workers, yes, are calling in sick in protest.

However, others are doing it for more practical reasons: Even though it is likely they will receive back pay once the government officially re-opens, many TSA employees live paycheck-to-paycheck, and are calling in sick because they can’t afford child care right now, or because they need to pick up other jobs to help make ends meet until their TSA paychecks resume.

The situation is expected to get worse as the pay-less days continue.

“This problem of call-outs is really going to explode over the next week or two when employees miss their first paycheck,” a union official at DFW told CNN. “TSA officers are telling the union they will find another way to make money. That means calling out to work other jobs.”

Unfortunately, there seems to be no end to the government shutdown in sight.

On Friday, President Donald Trump said that the shutdown could last for “ months or even years .” He also told reporters at the Rose Garden that he had the support of many federal workers to continue the shutdown until he received the funding for the wall.

“I will do whatever we have to do,” he said . “If we have to stay out for a very long period of time, we’re going to do that. Many of those [federal workers], most of those people, that really have not been and will not be getting their money in at this moment, those people in many cases are the biggest fan of what we’re doing.”

Of course, statistics actually say that 71 percent of federal workers oppose the shutdown. And that survey was conducted in December, before any paychecks were missed.

Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to meet with congressional leadership on Saturday morning to discuss a possible path forward. But Trump’s tweets do not indicate he is ready to make a deal.

“Great support coming from all sides for Border Security (including Wall) on our very dangerous Southern Border,” POTUS tweeted

“Teams negotiating this weekend! Washington Post and NBC reporting of events, including Fake sources, has been very inaccurate (to put it mildly)!”