From Texas Standard:
With the president demanding $5 billion for his border wall and House Democrats refusing to budge, there's no end in sight to the political impasse that has led to the partial government shutdown.
Travelers may be noticing long waits in security lines at airports in Dallas, Houston and other parts of the U.S. as large numbers TSA screeners call in sick with the so-called blue flu, as they're forced to work without pay.
But this might be a moment of opportunity for those TSA workers, so says Barbara Ehrenreich, author of "Nickel and Dimed – On (Not) Getting By in America." She lays out the case in a New York Times opinion piece she co-wrote with Gary Stevenson.
"Usually you hesitate to talk about striking because people won't be paid while they're striking," Ehrenreich says. "But here, they're already not getting paid – that's a certainty. So, I think that they need to stand up and say, 'You can't go on treating us like this.'"
What you'll hear in this segment:
– Why this situation differs from the Air Traffic Controllers strike in 1981
– How striking TSA agents could stage a more successful strike
– What this says about labor rights in the U.S.
Written by Alexandra Hart.
