The AFL-CIO complained Thursday that a government anti-terrorist screening program might be obtaining and keeping records of whether international travelers are union members. "Even the suggestion that union membership is somehow indicative of a threat to security is offensive to the millions of workers we are proud to represent," AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and Edward Wytkind, president of the labor federation's transportation trades department wrote. They sent a letter of complaint to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke responded that "it borders on the offensive to suggest that we have any interest in union membership. We don't."
See "Union Group Critical of Anti-Terror Plan", Michael J. Sniffen, San Francisco Chronicle, October 11, 2007