Dear Senator:
On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to cosponsor the Leave All Blades Behind Act of 2006 (S. 2083), introduced by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) to protect airline passengers and aircraft cabin crews. This legislation is needed to reverse the decision by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to relax the ban on potentially dangerous items allowed on board aircraft.
TTD represents hundreds of thousands of aviation workers, including flight attendants represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and Transport Workers Union. These dedicated cabin crew members are the first line of defense against any violent action or terrorist incident onboard an aircraft and, in fact, lost 25 of their colleagues during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Americans were shocked and their sense of security was shaken when it was learned that terrorists had used ordinary household items to commandeer four commercial aircraft. After that tragedy, Congress created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) which appropriately banned those items and similar articles from being brought onboard aircraft.
Unfortunately, the TSA has recently decided to relax the banned item list and allow potentially dangerous items – four inch scissors and large screwdrivers, for example, back on board. S. 2083 would simply reverse TSA’s misguided decision to allow dangerous items in the aircraft cabin and keep the ban on carry-on items in place as it was through December 22, 2005.
Simply put, we cannot afford to risk the safety of those onboard our nation’s aircraft. The traveling public and those for whom the aircraft cabin is their workplace deserve better. We urge you to support the Leave All Blades Behind Act.
Sincerely,
Edward Wytkind
President
