Flight attendants union upset over new pat-down procedures

abc15.com ^ | 11-10-10 | Christopher Sign

[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."

[Buckeye McFrog]

in this one instance I think they should mimic the French and walk off the job. Three or four days with no air travel and the gubbermint will fold like a three-dollar card table.

[Frantzie]

Deputize the AMERICAN male and female (if they want) passengers and give them small billy clubs. The 9/11 hijackers would have been beaten to a pulp.

[GeronL]

pornography requires a “sexual act”

Just a naked kid isn’t technically illegal. You can see that all day at “nudist” sites. They even have “beauty contests” for pre-teen girls at nudist resorts where the pervs (who should all die painfully) judge them and then they sell the DVD’s to online perverts (who should die swiftly) who couldn’t be there in person.

Obviously I’m not biased on this matter.

[SeeSac]

Thanks for posting the link that shows that the radiation you get from the x-ray is about 1/100 of that you would get on the flight itself!

[toldyou]

Isn’t this ridiculous?

They don’t have to remove their turbans, but the turbans will be “patted down.”

Oh yes, and this is good...they can carry a blade:
“Men have long accepted they cannot carry a sword aboard planes, Badal said, and so have modified the religious requirement by carrying pendants or blades embedded in their comb “as a symbolic symbol.”

http://cbs13.com/wireapnational/Indian.minister.asks.2.2002135.html

[SeeSac]

Thanks for the link showing how the threat of cancer has been overblown.

---

‘To put the issue in perspective, the radiation received from the scanning process is the equivalent to two minutes radiation received on a Transatlantic flight.

‘Recent press publications have been a little alarmist and may have heightene

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1290527/Airport-body-scanners-deliver-radiation-dose-20-times-higher-thought.html#ixzz14tY45pPU

[rawhide]

Are you serious? ‘beauty contest’ for pre-teen girls? No way!

[BluH2o]

Recently opted out of a full body scan on a flight out of Pittsburgh. Reason ... I don't like x-rays of any type no matter how low the dose. My dentist might get a routine x-ray every 3 years or so. Bottom line, I certainly can understand why airline employees choose to opt out. They go thru TSA security checks every day ... that type of exposure to full body scanners is sure to be unhealthy.

[ladyjane]

It is radiation.

It is recommended that pregnant women and children *NOT* go through those machines.

[null and void]

"Most of the scanners deliver less radiation than a passenger is likely to receive from cosmic rays while airborne, the report said. Scanned passengers may absorb from 0.1 to 5 microsieverts of radiation compared with 5 microsieverts on a flight from Dublin to Paris and 30 microsieverts between Frankfurt and Bangkok, the report said. A sievert is a unit of measure for radiation. "

IOW up to 300 times as much from the flight as from the scanner. Assuming a long flight and a low dose scanner. Worst case, the radiation risk from the flight itself is as great as the scan.

More perspective:

The natural dose due to the ambient radioactivity on Earth is on average 2,400 microsieverts in one year, with major differences between different countries depending on the bedrock specificity). At sea level the cosmic ray contribution is about 300 microsieverts.

IOW, if you don't fly you get about 600 times as much just sitting on your butt at home.

Are you really going to obsess about sitting home as well?

[PA-RIVER]

I officially stopped flying a year ago, after panty bomber.

TSA is a just an inner city jobs program.

I purchased a camper for the long trips.

I refuse to be groped, searched and insulted, and then meet my demise with Mohammed who wasn't searched. Its too much of an insult. They told us the system worked after a muzzie got on a plane with a bomb. So I stopped flying.

[BossLady]

Articles - (ionizing radiation apparently can cause DNA structural destabilization and damage)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1290527/Airport-body-scanners-deliver-radiation-dose-20-times-higher-thought.html

http://energyfanatics.com/2010/11/09/naked-airport-body-scanner-may-increase-cancer-risk/

http://www.naturalnews.com/028149_ionizing_radiation_airport_scanners.html

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/292414

The choices are -

1 - Destroying DNA

2 - Sexual assault

If I can't drive or take a train to where ever I am going....I am not going....

[SandRat]

... an armored booth you step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on your person.

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.

Maintenance, we have a Wet clen up at scanner #4, Wet clen up at scanner #4!

[GeronL]

It’s very sad. I can’t believe people can do this to kids but they do.

Did you know there are nude summer camps for kids 13-18 with no parents allowed?.... what could possibly go wrong?

pervs.

[SeeSac]

Recently opted out of a full body scan on a flight out of Pittsburgh. Reason ... I don't like x-rays of any type no matter how low the dose. My dentist might get a routine x-ray every 3 years or so. Bottom line, I certainly can understand why airline employees choose to opt out. They go thru TSA security checks every day ... that type of exposure to full body scanners is sure to be unhealthy.

Considering that the radiation dose of the flight itself is about 100x higher than that of the scan, you might want to rethink taking your next flight!

[SeeSac]

I hope you don’t have any CRT televisions around!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode_ray_tube#Ionizing_radiation

[donmeaker]

Actually the cuban hijackers wanting to return to the joys of communism were first

[donmeaker]

Actually the cuban hijackers wanting to return to the joys of communism were first

[donmeaker]

Actually the cuban hijackers wanting to return to the joys of communism were first

[null and void]