Federal workers in Rhode Island thankful for public's generosity during shutdown

PROVIDENCE — As President Trump announced a plan to end to longest-ever government shutdown on Friday, officers working for the Transportation Security Administration at T.F. Green Airport were picking up bags of groceries that were donated by well-wishers.

Daniel Burche, the TSA federal security director in Rhode Island, was preparing to start running their payroll. The process normally takes a few days, he said, but with the length of time and number of adjustments required, this was going to be "a pretty intense payroll."

Not a moment too soon. Unlike other airports that had seen call-outs of TSA officers, employees in Rhode Island continued to work unpaid, he said.

They were buoyed by public support, Burche said.  "The public has been truly phenomenal," he said. "Hundreds if not thousands of people have stopped to tell them thank you."

People donated coffee, doughnuts and gift cards. One delivered $2,000 worth of $10 Stop & Shop gift cards, with the instructions that all 200 officers receive one, Burche said. Claudine Pepin of Barrington donated 25 pizzas from Brickyard Pizza, and offered to send more, Burche said.

Then a group arrived Thursday with 103 bags of groceries, Burche said. Officers were "hugely relieved," he said. "One officer said, 'The passengers are so amazing that even if I'm sick, I can't call out.'"

Aviation safety inspector David Cardullo, in Riverside, said he was called back to work, unpaid, two weeks ago, but limited to work on safety-related issues.

He works out of the Federal Aviation Administration's Boston Flight Standards District Office, where he is responsible for the oversight, certification and surveillance of aircraft, airmen (pilots, crew members and instructors, among others) and air operators in New Bedford, Cape Cod and Rhode Island.

While the safety tasks were critical, Cardullo said, "it was frustrating because something would come up that we couldn't do."

Cardullo said that he and his wife had some funds set aside that had helped them weather the shutdown, but they wondered how long it would last. He worried about the financial impact on some of his coworkers, especially those whose spouses also worked for the FAA and weren't being paid.

"We just want to work," he said.