Sea-Tac security screener sent home after speaking out

A security screener at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was forced to turn in her security badge and leave work yesterday after speaking publicly about poor training and working conditions that could compromise airline-passenger safety.

Teuila Tuitele, 38, whose comments about airport security appeared in Sunday's Seattle Times, said she was told to go home after reporting for work yesterday.

She said her supervisor at Huntleigh USA, one of three companies providing security at Sea-Tac, told her the company was conducting an investigation after reading her comments in the newspaper.

Dan Jacobs, Huntleigh's operations manager at Sea-Tac, said Tuitele had not been fired. He said he was not authorized to give interviews and could not say whether she was being disciplined or suspended for her comments.

Huntleigh, whose hiring and training practices have come under intense scrutiny since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has begun clamping down on unauthorized interviews by employees. A memo dated Friday warns employees that they could be fired for talking to the news media.

"I feel the company is trying to hide things," Tuitele said yesterday. "I just want the public to know what they're getting into when they enter the airport. Why hide things? I want to fly safe just like everybody else."

Tuitele is one of about 220 screeners at Sea-Tac employed by Huntleigh, the nation's largest airport-security firm. The company's employees screen passengers and carry-on bags for Alaska Airlines and Northwest Airlines on concourses A and C and the North Terminal.

Since the attacks, the low pay, high turnover and poor training associated with such jobs have become a focus of concern for those seeking to improve security at airports nationwide.

Tuitele was one of three screeners who met with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray on Monday during her visit to Sea-Tac. Murray, who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, will be co-chairwoman of a joint hearing on airline safety tomorrow in Washington, D.C.

Tuitele told The Times she felt inadequately trained when she began reading X-ray machines and scanning passengers for weapons 11 months ago. She said she asked for more training on the X-ray machine but was told the company offered only 40 hours of on-the-job training.

Tuitele also said the company ignored its policy of rotating people through workstations every 30 minutes to minimize fatigue. When things got busy, she said, employees could spend up to three hours staring at an X-ray monitor.

Tuitele also said Huntleigh asked employees whether they had good vision but did not test vision, as required by the Federal Aviation Administration. The company did not comment on that report.

Huntleigh employees said they were concerned about turnover among screeners, who frequently were asked to work overtime when the firm was shorthanded. Tuitele said it was not uncommon for someone to work a day and not come back.

Murray's chief spokesman, Todd Webster, said he was troubled by Huntleigh's decision to pull Tuitele off the job.

"This is a woman, who as I understand it, is a relatively long-term employee at a time when we need people with experience in those jobs," Webster said. "To dismiss someone with her experience and knowledge of the system is troubling, if that's the case."

Huntleigh screeners at Sea-Tac earn $8.05 an hour at the start and receive no health benefits.