AMFA Lawsuit Forces Northwest Airlines to Modify Its Position On Record Checks.Business Editors LACONIA, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 30, 2002 Pressure from the lawsuit filed by Seham, Seham, Meltz & Petersen, on behalf of AMFA AMFA Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association AMFA Alternative Motor Fuels Act (PL 100-494) AMFA Asociación Movimiento Fe y AlegrÃa (Association for Activities of Faith and Joy; Guatemala) (Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) is an independent union that represents aircraft maintenance employees of commercial airlines in the United States. AMFA is committed to the principles of craft unionism, in that it seeks to represent only airline mechanics and ) against Northwest Airlines, Inc. (NWA) has forced NWA to modify its implementation procedures for procuring Criminal History Records Checks (CHRCs) of AMFA bargaining unit employees when those checks exceed current federal regulations. In the aftermath of September 11th, the Federal Aviation Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), component of the U.S. Department of Transportation that sets standards for the air-worthiness of all civilian aircraft, inspects and licenses them, and regulates civilian and military air traffic through its air traffic control (FAA) enacted new regulations that require aircraft operators to conduct fingerprint-based Criminal History Records Checks on any individual with unescorted access to Security Identification Display Areas (SIDA). Under this law, an individual will be deemed to have a "disqualifying criminal offense" if the individual has been convicted of any one of 28 criminal offenses within the past 10 years. The offenses include theft, dishonesty, and illegal position of a controlled substance. "Our litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. served its purpose," said, O.V. Delle-Femine, AMFA National Director. "It shone a spotlight on the company, forcing NWA to retreat from its improper invasion of our members' privacy rights. We hope next time Northwest Airlines will heed our call for discussions. If they respected our members rights in the first place, they could have spared themselves this embarrassment." In the lawsuit, AMFA requested the court to issue a permanent injunction to prevent NWA from using or retaining any CHRC CHRC Canadian Human Rights Commission CHRC Cultural Human Resources Council (Canada) CHRC Community Health Resource Center CHRC Caribbean Health Research Council (Trinidad and Tobago) information from AMFA-represented employees which exceeds the 10-year/28 offense requirement or applies to personnel who do not require SIDA access. This would prevent NWA from using the CHRC information for disciplinary purposes beyond the scope of the law. AMFA is an independent craft union not affiliated with the AFL-CIO AFL-CIO: see American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. AFL-CIO in full American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations U.S. . AMFA currently represents more than 11,000 aircraft technicians and related personnel employed at Alaska Airlines, American Trans Air, Atlantic Coast Airlines Atlantic Coast Airlines (IATA: DH, ICAO: BLR, and Callsign: Blue Ridge) was an airline based in the United States owned by Atlantic Coast Holdings, Inc.. It operated as United Express for United Airlines and Delta Connection for Delta Air Lines. , Mesaba Airlines and Northwest Airlines. AMFA's credo is "Safety in the air begins with quality maintenance on the ground." To learn more about AMFA, visit their website at www.amfanatl.org. |
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