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Against Giants Labor Advocates

BreakingThree airports are now converting to TSA Gold+. Des Moines and Tampa were notified on July 20. Charleston was notified on July 22, with town halls beginning the same day.

Start Here

What Is Happening, and Where to Read About It

If you are new here, you probably arrived this week. Officers at Des Moines International, Tampa International, and Charleston International have all been told their airports are transitioning to TSA Gold+, the program where a private company takes over screening operations and technology while TSA steps back to an oversight role. Town halls are underway. It is real, it is moving, and more airports are expected.

We have been documenting this from the primary sources for over a year, before it had a public name. There is a lot to catch up on, so rather than one long explainer, here is a map. Start at the top and go as deep as you want.

Start With the Basics
If you read one thing, read the officer's guide. It walks through what the Gold+ contract actually says about your job, in the contract's own words. What the Gold+ Contract Means for You: An Officer's Guide → For what TSA announced in May, how Gold+ differs from the Screening Partnership Program, and what was not disclosed to Congress: TSA Announces Gold+ Program to Workforce and Public → For the collective bargaining case and the Gold+ procurement running on parallel tracks: Two Timelines: The Union Case and the Gold+ Program →
What It Means for Your Job
What contractor screeners actually earn, the statutory pay floor, and why "not less than federal" is narrower than it sounds: What Private Contractor Screeners Are Actually Paid → What happens to severance if your airport is required to go private: If Your Airport Goes SPP: What TSA Officers Need to Know About Severance Pay → What happens to your federal health insurance and the five-year retirement rule: Your Federal Health Insurance and the Privatization Question → The benefits summary TSA hands separating officers, and three decisions in it that can cost you: TSA Is Handing Separating Officers a Benefits Summary. Three Decisions in It Can Cost You. →
What TSA Told the Bidders
When companies bidding on Gold+ asked TSA about staffing, the answers went on the public record. TSA will not set a minimum number of officers. No Number: What TSA Told the Bidders About Staffing → Whose jobs the program is actually aimed at, in TSA's own one-sentence answer: It Is Not a Recompete → How the contract scores the work, and ties it to the contractor's payment: The Checkpoint as a Product: What Gold+ Measures →
The Bigger Machinery
Gold+ is not only about who employs the screener. It is about the technology being built around the checkpoint. Who designs it: Inside the Firm That Builds Nearly Every TSA Checkpoint → What TSA says it plans to do with artificial intelligence: TSA Told the Vendors What It Plans to Do With AI → The government data pipeline being built to train the detection algorithms: What the Government Is Giving Away →
Where the Money and the Law Stand
How airports are already funding checkpoint technology themselves: Who Pays for the Checkpoint of the Future? → The fee-diversion bill everyone is talking about, and why it does less than the headlines say: The Fee Diversion Bill Is Not What You Think It Is →
If You Are Facing This Yourself

Reading is the first step. If you are at one of the three airports, or anywhere trying to understand where you stand, your options, your service date, your retirement math, your next move, that is a conversation worth having, and it is specific to your numbers. It costs you nothing to start.

Get Help: Describe Your Situation