LETTER FROM THE LONEWATCHMAN

I was discriminated against twice for my service while at TSA. Imagine
how it felt coming back from a mission directly related to national
security, to have that service held against me. First some simpletons
for one of the agencies that hired the first round of screeners lost a
bunch of security clearances. So the screeners whom were not overseas
and face to face with terrorists, simply went to the airport police
office for finger prints, filled out their paperwork again, and that
was that. Of course returning vets were expected to drive to a local
police department, on their own time, without the workman's comp
umbrella. Then once at this police department we had to pay our own
money and get reimbursed later.
The law says vets returning from military duty to civilian employment
are not suppose to be treated any differently than the civilian
employees. But here it was, being asked to go on our own time, at our
own expense, and our own risk to do something everyone else did on the
clock. This instance was created by our admin officer, who should have
known better. This guy could have turned our FSD into the face of the
prejudice employer during a time of war, in the eyes of the media. I
was only hours away from contacting Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve (ESGR). It was a slam dunk case, it was about to become a
metaphoric massacre in the legal realm. Luckily a supervisor and a
manager understood the gravity of situation and did what needed to be
done to make everything cool and legal. I bet to this day those two
ladies don’t get any credit for averting a legal and public relations
nightmare for our FSD. In fact I am fairly confident senior management
doesn’t even know about it.
The next instance of discrimination came soon after, when bonuses were
being paid out. The idea was to reward every screener with a nice bonus
of about 300 bucks. Once again however our shameless admin officer just
didn’t understand your not suppose to hold service against vets. He
decided since some screeners were on military duty, they don’t qualify
for the bonuses. The law of course guarantees that employees on
military duty get all the same pay, increases, and incentives other
employees do, so it's as if the vet had never left. Basically the vets
were being told you can’t have a bonus because you were defending the
country overseas. This was not an individual bonus, this was a blanket
bonus every screener received. Nor was it a bonus that was paid while
we were gone, it was being paid after we had returned. Again an
internal struggle occurred and put several vets from all levels of
management solidly against the admin officer. Eventually the vets did
get the bonus, almost a month later. The fact remains though that this
admin officer committed two acts of discrimination against vets, and he
still has his job. Would he still be working there if he had
discriminated twice against people of another ethnic group? The only
thing worse than a civilian dumping on vets, is when other vets let it
happen. -Lonewatchman