BALPA against ID Cards - TUC Congress

[Bruce Wayne]

ShotOne

That is a fair observation, however there is a substantial issue in this in that while the scheme is being rolled out through two airports, and that it has been premised that while "No-one will be forced to hold and ID card" airport employees that have air side access in line with their employment, EG Pilots, will be required to have an ID card or be denied access to their jobs, it would come forward that this is an aviation related issue.

In that:

Air side staff will be required to have an ID card.
Air side staff will be subject to the risk of having their biometric data stored.
Air side staff will be at risk to have their data mined and nefariously duplicated
Air side staff will be required, against their wishes to be party to lack of security against their wishes.
Air side staff will have no control over the data, how it used and how it is promulgated in either their professional lives or personal lives.
Air side staff will be subjected to having their data stored, without having criminal conviction which is a violation of rights under EU law. Ref: S. and Marper v. the United Kingdom.

So this would in effect be challenged through the minister for aviation as this issue, toward us relates to an aviation based matter.

However, it is the home office that is mounting the attack on our civil liberties, and as such, while there are many areas that this issue would be challenged under, the challenge is divided.

Again, you have to look at the manner in which New Labour has changed the constitution of this country and how the failings of many public offices continue unabated.

New Labour has proliferated ministers under various subjects headings under the guise of serving the "population" there are many benefits to the government.

Lets take for example a recent government failing that has been in the news, where does the responsibility lie? there are so many crossovers between potential ministers responsibility that no-one takes responsibility and business carries on without repercussion.

Of course there are many areas of benefit to the government in such proliferation, however, lets keep this focused rather than go off on a political tangent.

Retuning to this issue, while the matter as above concerns aviation, we have to challenge this on an aviation issue. As such, other areas that are represented have to challenge this through their individual challenges.

It's the old rule of divide and conquer. The government has divided the potential challenges while the administrative sector that is responsible remains unchallenged.

So the way forward is to make a stand. As you pointed out, pilots are highly skilled at analyzing the detail of a complex issue. Capt.. Pratt has indeed suggested a boycott in the BALPA mag, however there are many other pilots who are not BALPA members. Indeed, many air side access employees are not pilots, and are also opposed to the scheme. We have seen in this thread that are union representatives who are opposed to this scheme.

So while we have been divided, we need to unite all the air side access people to a coordinated effort. To voice the concerns and to effectively boycott the scheme as it is un-viable, a security risk in itself and a waste of public money.