A little bit here, a little bit there, THAT'S how we boil frogs in THIS country!
(BTW, this was sent to me by a friend, but the link was 404 when I checked it.)
Link to article in The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee):
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/nation_and_world/article/0,1426,MCA_454_1144306,00.html
The transportation industry is divided over a proposed federal identification card for millions of truck drivers, longshoremen, ship and barge crewmen, cargo handlers, airline employees and railroad workers.
Port authorities and trucking companies cautiously back the effort, but railroads and barge companies are opposed. Unions want to limit the scope of the background checks and keep the details out of the hands of employers.
The Department of Transportation is expected to finalize its proposal for a Transportation Worker Identity Card later this year. The department says it won't require companies to adopt the ID card, but their employees could be denied unescorted access to cargo at major port, truck and railroad terminals without one. Pending legislation in Congress may make the cards mandatory.
The ID card would be imprinted with a holographic picture and a digital fingerprint. Transportation Department officials have told Congress the cards could cost between $25 and $50 apiece, but it has not said who would pay for the card. Businesses figure they would at least have to bear the cost of card-reading devices.
"It would be for all transportation workers in all modes. It would be universal. It would be the same card whether it was a rail worker or a port worker or an airport worker," said Deirdre O'Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration.
The agency was created by Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack to take over passenger and baggage screening at airports. But its mandate is to secure all modes of transportation. Its 60,000 new employees also would use the card.
The security agency plans to run pilot projects for private companies at a few ports this summer and to decide on full implementation in the fall.
O'Sullivan said the number of ID cardholders potentially could run into the millions, depending on how many companies sign up to use it.
Anne Burns, vice president of public affairs at American Waterways Operators, said the group was told that as many as 15 million workers could be covered.
The Defense Department recently distributed a similar ID card to defense contractors. Background checks are required by federal law for airport workers and drivers of hazardous-materials tankers.
Many transportation companies now hire companies to check potential employees' arrest records, but usually the firms can only check local police records.
"What we need in the transportation industry is the ability to conduct national criminal history checks using the resources of the FBI's National Criminal Information Center," said Frederick Smith, chairman, president and chief executive officer of FedEx.
Trucking companies back the federal ID because they want to avoid having to buy and carry multiple local IDs.
Last year, the Florida legislature required its 14 deepwater ports to control access to their terminals through criminal background checks and identity cards.
Phil Byrd, president and CEO of Bulldog Hiway Express, in Charleston, S.C., said he might have to pay between $50 and $75 to each of the 14 ports for each of his 200 drivers just to pick up container loads. Consequently, "We no longer do business at the Florida ports. Unfortunately, the problem is spreading (to other cities)," said Byrd.
Trucking companies want a universal ID card, but they don't the federal government limiting their choice of employees.
Employers should get the complete FBI criminal records check so they can make a "fully informed determination" whom to hire, said Prasad Sharma, assistant general counsel of the American Trucking Associations.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, on the other hand, objects to giving trucking companies access to FBI records and to requiring IDs for all 9 million commercial drivers. "Let's define these drivers very specifically and let's have the government do the checks," said Teamsters spokesman Rob Black.
O'Sullivan said the Transportation Security Administration will only tell companies whether the employee meets or fails the criminal records check. But the agency has yet to decide on criteria that would disqualify an employee.
Susan Turner, vice president of the American Association of Port Authorities, said port officials favor the ID cards but are concerned that overly stringent background checks could make it difficult to hire longshoremen.
Congress could settle the issue. A Senate-passed bill would disqualify transportation workers if within the past seven years they had committed any of the same 28 crimes that now disqualify airline workers, ranging from murder, kidnapping and espionage to illegal drug possession and destruction of property.
Unions prefer a bill pending in the House that would limit the disqualifying crimes to those indicative of a terrorist threat. The House Transportation Committee passed the bill in March.
Two industries are balking at adopting the ID cards at all.
Barge operators, who operate mostly in warm months, worry about how long it would take to run background checks when they're trying to fill a crew with seasonal employees, said Burns, of the Waterway Operators.
"We don't think U.S. transportation workers are the most likely serious threat to security. It doesn't make sense to spend enormous resources on us while not considering the greater threat of foreign crewmen or foreign truckers," said Burns.
The rail industry believes the cards are redundant. Edward Hamberger, president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, and James Brunkenhoefer, national legislative director for the United Transportation Union, both said in separate interviews that the federal ID card is a "solution searching for a problem."
The average railroad employee has been on the job 13 years and new hires are screened against the FBI watch list, said Hamberger.
On the Web:
Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov.
(Contact James W. Brosnan at BrosnanJ(at)shns.com or http://www.shns.com.)
Copyright 2002 - The Commercial Appeal is an E.W. Scripps Company newspaper
(BTW, this was sent to me by a friend, but the link was 404 when I checked it.)
Link to article in The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee):
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/nation_and_world/article/0,1426,MCA_454_1144306,00.html
The transportation industry is divided over a proposed federal identification card for millions of truck drivers, longshoremen, ship and barge crewmen, cargo handlers, airline employees and railroad workers.
Port authorities and trucking companies cautiously back the effort, but railroads and barge companies are opposed. Unions want to limit the scope of the background checks and keep the details out of the hands of employers.
The Department of Transportation is expected to finalize its proposal for a Transportation Worker Identity Card later this year. The department says it won't require companies to adopt the ID card, but their employees could be denied unescorted access to cargo at major port, truck and railroad terminals without one. Pending legislation in Congress may make the cards mandatory.
The ID card would be imprinted with a holographic picture and a digital fingerprint. Transportation Department officials have told Congress the cards could cost between $25 and $50 apiece, but it has not said who would pay for the card. Businesses figure they would at least have to bear the cost of card-reading devices.
"It would be for all transportation workers in all modes. It would be universal. It would be the same card whether it was a rail worker or a port worker or an airport worker," said Deirdre O'Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration.
The agency was created by Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack to take over passenger and baggage screening at airports. But its mandate is to secure all modes of transportation. Its 60,000 new employees also would use the card.
The security agency plans to run pilot projects for private companies at a few ports this summer and to decide on full implementation in the fall.
O'Sullivan said the number of ID cardholders potentially could run into the millions, depending on how many companies sign up to use it.
Anne Burns, vice president of public affairs at American Waterways Operators, said the group was told that as many as 15 million workers could be covered.
The Defense Department recently distributed a similar ID card to defense contractors. Background checks are required by federal law for airport workers and drivers of hazardous-materials tankers.
Many transportation companies now hire companies to check potential employees' arrest records, but usually the firms can only check local police records.
"What we need in the transportation industry is the ability to conduct national criminal history checks using the resources of the FBI's National Criminal Information Center," said Frederick Smith, chairman, president and chief executive officer of FedEx.
Trucking companies back the federal ID because they want to avoid having to buy and carry multiple local IDs.
Last year, the Florida legislature required its 14 deepwater ports to control access to their terminals through criminal background checks and identity cards.
Phil Byrd, president and CEO of Bulldog Hiway Express, in Charleston, S.C., said he might have to pay between $50 and $75 to each of the 14 ports for each of his 200 drivers just to pick up container loads. Consequently, "We no longer do business at the Florida ports. Unfortunately, the problem is spreading (to other cities)," said Byrd.
Trucking companies want a universal ID card, but they don't the federal government limiting their choice of employees.
Employers should get the complete FBI criminal records check so they can make a "fully informed determination" whom to hire, said Prasad Sharma, assistant general counsel of the American Trucking Associations.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, on the other hand, objects to giving trucking companies access to FBI records and to requiring IDs for all 9 million commercial drivers. "Let's define these drivers very specifically and let's have the government do the checks," said Teamsters spokesman Rob Black.
O'Sullivan said the Transportation Security Administration will only tell companies whether the employee meets or fails the criminal records check. But the agency has yet to decide on criteria that would disqualify an employee.
Susan Turner, vice president of the American Association of Port Authorities, said port officials favor the ID cards but are concerned that overly stringent background checks could make it difficult to hire longshoremen.
Congress could settle the issue. A Senate-passed bill would disqualify transportation workers if within the past seven years they had committed any of the same 28 crimes that now disqualify airline workers, ranging from murder, kidnapping and espionage to illegal drug possession and destruction of property.
Unions prefer a bill pending in the House that would limit the disqualifying crimes to those indicative of a terrorist threat. The House Transportation Committee passed the bill in March.
Two industries are balking at adopting the ID cards at all.
Barge operators, who operate mostly in warm months, worry about how long it would take to run background checks when they're trying to fill a crew with seasonal employees, said Burns, of the Waterway Operators.
"We don't think U.S. transportation workers are the most likely serious threat to security. It doesn't make sense to spend enormous resources on us while not considering the greater threat of foreign crewmen or foreign truckers," said Burns.
The rail industry believes the cards are redundant. Edward Hamberger, president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, and James Brunkenhoefer, national legislative director for the United Transportation Union, both said in separate interviews that the federal ID card is a "solution searching for a problem."
The average railroad employee has been on the job 13 years and new hires are screened against the FBI watch list, said Hamberger.
On the Web:
Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov.
(Contact James W. Brosnan at BrosnanJ(at)shns.com or http://www.shns.com.)
Copyright 2002 - The Commercial Appeal is an E.W. Scripps Company newspaper
