AFGE Backs TSOs Who Screened Lawmaker

September 30, 2009
by
Federal Daily

AFGE Backs TSOs Who Screened Lawmaker

Transportation Security Officers (TSO) acted strictly according to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) procedures when they selected Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, for additional screening at the Salt Lake International Airport, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) said in a Sept. 28 statement. The screening occurred Sept. 21 when the freshman congressman was flying back to Washington, D.C., from Salt Lake City International Airport’s Delta Airlines Terminal 2. Chaffetz, who recently voted against a bill that would grant collective bargaining to TSOs, complained that the TSOs had singled him out. There is some dispute as to the sequence of events at the checkpoint. AFGE Membership and Organization Director Sharon Pinnock said that Chaffetz chose to use the security lane with an optional body-image machine. But Chaffetz, who is an outspoken critic of the machines, said he was ordered into the body-image line by TSOs working the checkpoint, according to published accounts. “It does seem odd that Congressman Chaffetz would choose to use an image machine that he would like to see banned,” Pinnock said. “We are hard-pressed to understand his thinking on this.” In a message on his Web site, Chaffetz continued to complain about the machines. “Whole body imaging is as complete an invasion of privacy as there is,” the statement said. “For the federal government to view passengers naked or to pressure or mislead them into believing they must enter an imaging machine before boarding a flight is flat out wrong.” To see more, go to: http://www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&Press
ReleaseID=1049 or http://chaffetz.house.gov.

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