Posted on 11/10/2010 7:26:37 AM PST by rawhide
A flight attendants union with 2,000 members is upset over what it calls "invasive pat-downs" recently implemented by the TSA.
"We're getting calls daily about peoples' experiences, our members are concerned," said Deborah Volpe, Vice President of the Association of Flight Attendants Local 66.
Volpe confirmed that the union is offering advice to its flight attendants, who mostly work for Tempe-based USAirways, involving the security moves.
According to a union email obtained by ABC15, it tells flight attendants if they opt out of using the body scanner through security and are required to undergo a pat-down to ask the pat-down be conducted in a private area with a witness.
"We don't want them in uniform going through this enhanced screening where their private areas are being touched in public," said Volpe. "They actually make contact with the genital area."
Some passengers have told ABC15 they've already encountered flight delays due to crew members having problems with TSA employees.
"It (delay) was over three hours when they finally found a crew member to take her place," said Les Johnson who says his Charlotte bound flight was delayed. "She (flight attendant) felt that she was groped and supposedly filed a claim."
"They've already contacted the ACLU," said Volpe when referring to some members of the union. "We don't know if somebody may have had an experience with a sexual assault and its (pat-down) going to drudge up some bad memories."
Volpe made it clear the union is not against security.
"Security is the most important aspect, our offices were used as murder weapons," said Volpe. "Keep in mind we undergo extensive background checks and we fly quite often."
(Excerpt) Read more at abc15.com ...
What is the long-term danger of these scanners on people who travel frequently. Cancer???????
GOooooo flight attendants! Hopefully they can get this insanity stopped.
The perverts get their jollies from sending kids and women through those scanners and now if the traveler refuses to be strip scanned they get groped and molested?
Wow.
Abolish the TSA.
None. It’s far infrared, not x-rays.
Just look what people are put through now...private areas touched in public? And we simply accept it. All because of Muslims. All because we won't "racially profile." How long before we all have to strip down to our undies or less at the airport, and all of us, like sheep, meekly do it?
I think I'm through with flying.
Why can’t we go back to where it was? Before the naked body scanners and new groping procedures?
...and arm the passengers and crew.
islam still exists.
Why that is, I have no idea.
If the airlines are going ahead with this invasive patting down I think they’d better buy their passengers dinner and a movie. It only seems fair.
No more flying. Period.
All middle easterners leaving the middle east must sit in a waiting room ... or gymnasium ... long enough for every national agency (American, British, French .. whatever) to thoroughly check you out before you even enter the passenger area of an airport.
Screw your dignity and privacy ... they're repairable, lost lives are not.
Another check at the end flight.
This is an age of electronics and communications ... if "business people" must travel to another country, I personally don't buy the "it's business" story.
If you're an Iraqi that wants to vacation in the USA ... plan three weeks ... two for the security hold and investigation(s) and one to see sights.
The Israelis are developing an airport security device that eliminates the privacy concerns that come with full-body scanners at the airports.
Its an armored booth you step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on your person. They see this as a win-win situation for everyone, with none of this crap about racial profiling. It also would eliminate the costs of a long and expensive trial. Justice would be swift. Case closed!
You’re in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter an announcement comes over the PA system... “Attention standby passengers we now have a seat available on flight number 6709. Shalom!”
they are only working to exempt themselves, not the sheeple in coach
OTOH, many of the male flight attendants seem like the type who would enjoy having their junk massaged by the TSA
yes, skin cancer
I read on an 'Opt Out' site that it's better to demand the pat-downs in a public area - refuse going to a private room.
What do you want to bet that the government screeners doing the same-sex pat downs include a very large number of homosexual men and lesbians? All in the name of diversity, of course.
LOL! Dinner and a movie, or at least send flowers after
Source please?
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