Washington Post: DHS Noting Union Affiliation Of Air Travelers Is Protested

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/11/AR2007101102403.html?tid=informbox

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 12, 2007; Page D03

U.S. labor leaders have written a biting letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, voicing concerns that the government is collecting labor union data on airline passengers flying to the United States from Europe to determine whether they pose a terrorism risk.

As part of an agreement reached in July between the United States and European Union, airlines are required to provide personal data on millions of U.S.-bound passengers, such as names and credit card information. European negotiators won restrictions on the use of such sensitive information as religion, sexual orientation and union membership.

But the Passenger Name Record Agreement states that that data can be used in exceptional cases, "where the life of a data subject or of others could be imperiled or seriously impaired," such as in a counterterrorism investigation.

"We agree with the department's objective to identify those representing a genuine threat, but we categorically reject the notion that union membership has any bearing on this determination," AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department, wrote in a letter dated yesterday. "Even the suggestion that union membership is somehow indicative of a threat to security is offensive to the millions of workers we are proud to represent."

Sweeney and Wytkind said they were "extremely troubled" by an agreement that anticipates the transfer of such data. They asked Chertoff to state that the Department of Homeland Security will not collect such data.

FULL story at link.

Related articles

Congressional Quarterly: http://public.cq.com/docs/hs/hsnews110-000002603939.html

Associated Press: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j4WZjDJLMmE8aSvsynDpsqlDJPZwD8S7B4AG0

capture, torture and murder those on the list.

Union members are terrorists in their mind?? How much further proof do we need that this is a government of and for the large corporations and the people be damned.