(The TTD released the following press release on March 18.)
WASHINGTON, DC — The AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) today joined four airline unions in asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review recent Bush Administration regulations that threaten the livelihoods of many airline workers under vague standards that deny employees their basic due process protections.
The new regulations, implemented by the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration without any opportunity for public comment, cover pilots, mechanics, flight instructors, and others in the aviation industry. As currently written, the rules permit the revocation or denial of an employee s certification if the government, under arbitrary and rather secretive procedures, concludes that they pose a “security threat.”
“Transportation workers agree that we need a secure transportation system,” declared TTD President Sonny Hall. “But we don’t believe that the best way to ensure aviation security is to deny an entire class of aviation employees the due process rights Americans have.”
Transportation unions are concerned that the Administration’s move threatens worker rights, especially since the regulations fail to embrace fair and objective standards in determining an employee s fitness to serve in an airline industry position requiring federal certification. Worst of all, any employee in question is denied the right to an impartial review of the facts. And the rules do not require that the worker be informed of the specific reasons — or even be shown the evidence — behind a security threat finding.TTD and the aviation unions believe that a worker who poses a legitimate terrorism security risk shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near an aircraft.
At the same time, employees must be given the chance to have their case considered through a fair and impartial process.
“The goal of this process must be to ensure that only those workers who genuinely threaten national security are blocked from working in these positions,” Hall added. “Working in the airline industry shouldn’t mean you have to give up the basic rights that are a cornerstone of a free and great nation.
“Along with TTD, four AFL-CIO unions filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — the Air Line Pilots Association, the International Association of Machinists, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the Transport Workers Union.”
TTD represents 35 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org