Whick job has the most injuries?

[Snowgoose]

You have got to be kinding me.


Airport screeners' strains, sprains highest
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY Wed Jan 11, 9:35 AM ET

Federal airport screeners continue to have the highest injury rate among the nation's workers nearly two years after the Transportation Security Administration discovered the problem.

The rate of screeners injured on the job fell in 2005 to 29% from 36% the previous year, according to the latest
TSA figures. But the rate remains higher than any of about 600 job categories tracked by the Labor Department.

The injury rate for screeners far exceeds the 4.5% injury rate for the rest of the federal workforce. The private sector rate was 4.8% in 2004, the most recent year for which Labor Department figures are available. These figures include all job injuries, even if an employee didn't miss work. In general, about a third of workplace injuries result in lost job time.

Screeners are five times more likely to get injured than coal miners and seven times more likely than textile millworkers, according to TSA and Labor Department data.

"It is a physically demanding job," TSA spokeswoman Amy von Walter says. Screeners "repeatedly lift and move heavy bags."

The 48,000 full- and part-time screeners missed nearly a quarter-million days because of injuries in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Labor Department figures show.

Absenteeism aggravates staffing problems in airport security. Screeners have missed training and violated a law requiring checked luggage to go through bomb-detection machines because of staffing shortages, according to the
Government Accountability Office and the
Homeland Security Department inspector general.

The injuries cost taxpayers $52 million in fiscal 2005 to cover wages and medical payments for injured screeners, the TSA says.

To cut down on worker strains, sprains and spasms, the TSA has moved luggage-scanning machines in airports so screeners don't have to carry suitcases far.

In September, the agency hired a contractor to review medical records of injured screeners, crack down on fraud and get workers back to work more quickly.

Gil Harris, a screener on a safety committee at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, says local TSA officials have asked the agency to buy devices that would lift suitcases onto luggage scanners but haven't gotten approval.

Harris, who missed two weeks of work a year ago when he pinched a nerve while lifting a heavy suitcase, says, "There's a lot that can still be done."

[grimey]

so filling my checked bags with 300lbs of concrete is a bad thing?

[cyyz]

In September, the agency hired a contractor to review medical records of injured screeners, crack down on fraud and get workers back to work more quickly

They all must have called in sick the day that 21 terrorists got box cutters onto the plane..

Tell them to go and kiss my ass... Useless shits..

[Snowgoose]

I have never seen them touch my bags except when they want to wand it or ask me to take out my laptop.

Useless is right.

[cyyz]

Since we're on the subject, do these guys ever get sued???

The airlines got sued, but did these guys take any legal hits for 9/11, Air India, and the other numerous times they've let stuff get "missed?"

[grimey]

Since we're on the subject, do these guys ever get sued???

The airlines got sued, but did these guys take any legal hits for 9/11, Air India, and the other numerous times they've let stuff get "missed?"

IIRC, the knives (leatherman multitools) used in 9/11 were legal to carry onto the plane at the time. I dunno about the Air India deal, except that a baggage handler got killed in Tokyo by one of the bombs.

[cyyz]

I dunno about the Air India deal, except that a baggage handler got killed in Tokyo by one of the bombs.

Fair enough... Even though technically, they don't screen the bags either, they just steal the contents...

[J.P.WISER]

I bet if you take away thier sick days alot of that would stop.

Thats just f#*king sad!!

[Driving Rain]

"It is a physically demanding job," TSA spokeswoman Amy von Walter says. Screeners "repeatedly lift and move heavy bags."

Heavy bags???? We're talking about "carry on bags" here folks.

[hazatude]

Give them a week on the ramp with me and I'll make men out of them!

[Pratt]

You should take notice that they are talking about the US screeners, where they do put checked luggage through xray machines, some if not all from what I recall. And they have the authority to search any checked in baggage that they want prior to it being loaded on an aircraft.

Not that I am trying to defend them........definitely not!! I don't have alot of use for them or their power tripping tactics here in Canada either.

Quote:

"In September, the agency hired a contractor to review medical records of injured screeners, crack down on fraud and get workers back to work more quickly."

I think that quote sums it up right there.

[Edo]

I went to the US over christmas this year. The TSA screeners manually lifted all the baggage onto x-ray scanners. Admitidly this was not at a large airport but they moved every bag and also had to carry the bags 15' to the transfer belts.

The same people also screened the pax and carry on but no lifting was required there. If the wand waversa are hurting their backs they should come up here. Once good season on the dock would likely kill em

[SK_pile_it]

that is total bull crap. i think it has to go out to the bag boys chuckin 80+ lb bags all day. You nailed it, the screeners only lift CARRY ONS!!!! I think the rampies just complain less, suck it up and do the work, and not continue to whine like little girls when they break a nail. I'd like to see those screeners on the ramp!! hahaha...

[Nightshiftzombie]

Look at the shape most of them are in. Most have the build of long term Tim Hortons emmployees. No wonder they get hurt a lot.

[Driving Rain]

I've been a passenger out of YSB a few times in the last couple of years. YSB's got one of them new fangled sniffer machines. After purchasing my ticket and receiving my boarding pass I was made to carry my "checked bags" around to it where I lifted them on to the machines conveyer myself . The checkers never touched them except for when they took a large QTip out and swabbed my brain bag. The swab was then put in the anal-izing machine for further scrutiny.
One time they made me open my bag and dump it's contents. I was then taken aside and questioned on why I was carring all this "pilot stuff". It had never occured to any of them that a real pilot might have need to buy an airline ticket to get home. BTW in Sudbury the bag checkers looked to be refugees from the old folks home. We all know how distrustful the elderly are.

[cyyz]

We all know how distrustful the elderly are.

bunch of commies

[Siddley Hawker]

We all know how distrustful the elderly are.

I can't speak for Cat Driver, but I resent that remark sonny!

[TG]

You nailed it, the screeners only lift CARRY ONS!!!!

Actually in most US regional airports I've been, you do your check-in then you go and leave your "checked luggage" to the screeners. They will do the lift up as you leave your checked bags in an already "restricted area" (around their screening machine)
It's a good idea to stay nearby if you don't want your locks being broken unless you have some TSA's ones.

So yes, they do some lift up! (again, talking about USA not Canada) and that is probably only because those screening machines were added in a hurry into those terminals were no conveyor belts are connected to each company check-in box or something like that.

Then later on, you go and get screened yourself with your carry-on in another place.

I know, I'm talking about regional airports where usually most of the passengers are only with carry-on doing a one day trip.
In international US airports, I just don't know what they are doing behind the walls with my checked bags. I can only guess that, if they want to open one they will have to at list lift it around if upside down.

And I have a bit more respect with them than with rampies regarding my checked bags. At list they don't throw mine around, put them outside under the rain, lose them, steal stuff inside etc...I'm to the point of putting dirty underwear into my unlocked pockets.

[Driving Rain]

I don't know how the rest of you guys protect your contents from thieves and smugglers but heres what I've done.
I carry the sipper and duffel type bags, not he hard case Samsonite type. Being as locks only keep honest people out, I deploy this tactic. I carry a pkg of small tie wraps, the kind that are used to secure electricial and other uses. After I check in but before they take my bag away I use the wraps to secure each sipper on the bag even the empty pockets. I do this in full view of the agent. I place the tie wrap pkg inside the last pocket to be zip locked. When I get to the destination a quick visual of my bags will determine if they've been tampered with.

[SK_pile_it]

Not all rampies are thieves. I dont know of any from any airports I've worked at. And a small addition to the comment about them only lifting carry-ons. In saskatoon the screeners make the passengers lift their own checked baggage onto a metal slide that goes to the bag room. This is for NWA's self-check-in. Too lazy to lift a bag about 3 feet over and place it on the slide themselves.

[cyyz]

I don't know how the rest of you guys protect your contents from thieves and smugglers .

I put a bomb into it.. =)

[Expat]

I always laugh when some young woman here asks me to open that small pouch in my carry-on because something metallic is inside. I always a bunch of condoms wrapped in foil.

[scaredpax]

Not all rampies are thieves. I dont know of any from any airports I've worked at. And a small addition to the comment about them only lifting carry-ons. In saskatoon the screeners make the passengers lift their own checked baggage onto a metal slide that goes to the bag room. This is for NWA's self-check-in. Too lazy to lift a bag about 3 feet over and place it on the slide themselves.

Same at YYG - I believe NWA files to there too. It is so small there is only one baggage check point and I guess it has to meet FAA standards too, for the NWA flights. There is a sign that says you have to lift the bags on yourself and it goes through a massive screening thingy that you usually only see at International departure gates. At YYC and YVR there is a 50% chance only that they ask me if I have a laptop (I do). and then after that there is only 50% chance that they swab and sniff the laptop.

Get this, they were about to put my bag through the carry on bag screener and I suddently asked, should I take my laptop out? The screener says Yes. I said You usually ask me. Screener says You were not carrying a laptop bag (the laptop was in my main carry on).

Well DUH if I was trying to sneak a laptop in I certainly would NOT carry it in a laptop bag! Luckily for them I am honest. The correct thing to do is ask every passenger certain questions and to see how suspiciously they react (like the El-Al method). Based on that, conduct more screenings.

You are right these guys could recite the Tim Horton's menu and price list by memory, but do not seem to have any investigative skills. Sometimes they do not even ask for a boarding pass! That has happend at least 2x to me.

(For the record I do not buy the official line that was magically discovered 2 days later, that suddenly they had pictures and names of student pilots who took over 4 planes with mere pen knives or whatever. But that is a whole other thread....)

[water wings]

"It is a physically demanding job," TSA spokeswoman Amy von Walter says. Screeners "repeatedly lift and move heavy bags."

Heavy bags???? We're talking about "carry on bags" here folks.

Too true...i carrried heavier shit as a Flight Attendant, including that same carry on, galley equipment, full bundles of 50 newspapers, stretchers and drunk f**8s off the plane and i never got a group of yohos to study my writsts...hey, did they even look at the cargo guys and the crap they move in the middle of an icy ramp?
jebus, my flight bag is heavier... hell, my apple fritter is heavier.

AND while i'm on a bitch fest about the security "team" ... do you think a glass wine bottle or a pot of hot coffee might be used as a weapon on board, or are nail clippers and knitting needles the only threats?
too bad annoying stupidity doesn't kill those affected...


Hey, Edo, you reminded me of the "carry on" moose i used to haul... do you think we could handle their wand? (ooops, that didn't come out right... ) you know what i mean...

i digress...