SCN: Anti-union boss searches workers' home computers with court's okay (fwd)

Thu Feb 24 10:27:26 PST 2000

FYI -- sorry if this is common knowledge already.  I thought JJ's
scenario about seizure of SCN computers was a little far-fetched,
but as Sarah says, the following is alarming.  LP  

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 11:38:08 EST
From: SsarahT at aol.com
To: barman at ctc.edu
Subject: Anti-union boss searches workers' home computers with court's okay

Dear Sisters & Brothers in Solidarity,

Below is an alarming posting, describing a court-authorized Northwest 
Airlines search of home computers of rank&file Teamster flight attendants, as 
well as the home and office computers of union officials.

A settlement has halted the search of the union officials' property, but the 
rank&file remain vulnerable. Thank goodness that Ralph Nader's Public Citizen 
Litigation Group is representing them. 

It's interesting how a cyberlaw attorney in the article classifies the 
workers' speech as "business" rather than "political." Historically courts 
have protected political speech more than other types of speech.

The article below describes how courts increasingly have been willing to help 
companies crack down on r&f online discussions, bad-mouthing companies or 
their management. Chilling.

-- cheers & solidarity, Sarah Luthens
__
From: 
http://www.startribune.com/viewers/qview/cgi/qview.cgi?template=biz_a&slug=pri
v0208

“Court authorizes search of Northwest employees' home computers”
Eric Wieffering and Tony Kennedy 
Star Tribune
Tuesday, February 8, 2000

Northwest Airlines last week began court-authorized searches of the home
computers of between 10 and 20 flight attendants, looking for private e-mail 
and other evidence that the employees helpedto organize a sickout at the 
airline over the New Year's holiday.

The search has since been suspended pending a temporary settlement of
the airline's lawsuit against Teamsters Local 2000, the union
representing 11,000 flight attendants. But privacy advocates and
attorneys not involved with the case say Northwest's action may embolden
other companies to more aggressively monitor what employees say and do
online from their home computers.

"If Northwest succeeds in gaining access to the hard drives of the home
computers of its employees, it will certainly put a chill on the uses
employees everywhere make of their home computers," said Beth Givens,
director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego.

Northwest's action comes at a time when bills to protect individual
privacy have been introduced at the state and national level. In addition,
an increasing number of employees are learning, to their dismay, that
companies have the right to monitor their online activities at work.
Last month, for example, the New York Times fired 23 employees for
sharing bawdy e-mail messages.

Northwest defended the search, noting that a federal court had
authorized it.

"In the age we live in, the normal course of discovery includes taking
depositions, producing documents and these days more than ever looking
into the content of computers," said Jon Austin, a spokesman for
Northwest.

"So many documents and communications these days are purely electronic
in nature," Austin said.

But companies have rarely sought to search the home computers of their
employees. In the past, most such searches usually have been limited to
cases involving workers who've been accused of stealing company files,
passing on trade secrets to competitors or using insider information to
profit on the trading of company stock.

Nor is all speech on the Internet protected by the First Amendment.
Increasingly, courts have been willing to help companies crack down on
so-called "cybersmearing" -- bad-mouthing companies or their management
online.

"Business speech is not subject to the same protections as political
speech," said John Roberts, a Minneapolis attorney who specializes in
cyberlaw.

"You can't say whatever you want about a company."

The get-tough strategy is a new one for Northwest, too. In the spring of
1998, the company's mechanics, frustrated by the pace of contract
negotiations, began an unauthorized work slowdown that forced flight
delays and hundreds of cancellations. Union leaders disclaimed any knowledge
or authorization of the campaign, which employees advocated on Web sites
and message boards.

Last month, however, Northwest sued the flight attendants union and some
of its members, alleging they had violated federal labor laws by
orchestrating a sickout. Judge Frank agreed with Northwest and issued a 
temporary restraining order that prohibited the union from advocating any work
disruptions.

New legal ground

Still, the Northwest case appears to break new ground because, in
addition to searching the office computers of union officials, Northwest got
permission to search their home computers and the home computers of
several rank-and-file employees, including Kevin Griffin and Ted Reeve.
The temporary settlement in the suit does not apply to Griffin and
Reeve.

The judge agreed to put the suit on hold as it pertains to the union and
19 individuals who are represented by the union's attorneys. But Griffin
and Reeve, who are not represented by union attorneys because they are not
union officers, are still subject to the company's discovery efforts and to a
possible injunction against them.

"This kind of precedent could have a very chilling effect on the
exercise of speech rights, and could set a very bad precedent for privacy," 
said
Jerry Berman, executive director for the Center for Democracy and Technology,
a leading privacy rights organization based in Washington, D.C.

Like most flight attendants, Griffin and Reeve do not use a computer at
work. But they do operate online message boards where flight attendants
have vented their frustration toward the company and the union leadership.
Griffin's message board, <http://www.nwaflightattendants.com, included
anonymous postings calling for a sickout, but they were usually followed
by urgings from Griffin that participants not advocate illegal activities.

Northwest hired two computer forensic experts from Ernst & Young to copy
the hard drives of the 21 individuals named in the lawsuit. The judge
limited the search to union activities relating to the sickout or e-mail to 43
individuals, well beyond the number of people named in the original
lawsuit.

"This is really an extension beyond established law," said Marshall
Tanick, a Minneapolis attorney who specializes in workplace and privacy 
issues.
"How different is this from wiretapping somebody's phone?"

Personal data

Barbara Harvey, a Detroit-based attorney representing Griffin and Reeve,
said the situation has created tremendous anxiety about the possible
loss of "highly personal" information.

"We are trusting them [Ernst & Young] totally. We don't know them. We
didn't hire them. In fact, they were hired by Northwest. But we are put into
the position of having to trust them," she said.

Griffin, a veteran Northwest flight attendant based in Honolulu,
surrendered his Packard Bell desktop and Fujitsu laptop at the Ernst & Young 
office in Honolulu. He was met there by two forensic examiners who flew to
Honolulu from Washington, D.C., and Texas.

"I didn't think they had the right to come and get your home computer,"
he said.

The threat of a court-authorized search of home computers has already
had one measurable impact: Postings to a rank-and-file Web site that was
openly critical of both union management and the company have slowed to a
trickle.

"If you're Northwest Airlines, you're probably smiling about that," said
Paul Levy, a lawyer for Ralph Nader's Public Citizen Litigation Group,
which also represents Griffin and Reeve.

Northwest might not be the only party pleased to see the Web site go
quiet.

Griffin's Web site and an organized e-mail campaign were instrumental in
rallying opposition that defeated a tentative contract agreement that
was reached last June and endorsed by the union's top leaders, including
Teamsters General President James Hoffa.

Asked why the union didn't fight harder against the effort to search
employees' home computers, Billie Davenport, president of Teamsters
Local 2000, said the union complied with the discovery request because it felt
it had nothing to hide.

'Was enough protection'

"We had voiced concern over people's privacy. There was an
invasion-of-privacy issue," Davenport said. "But we believe there was
enough privacy protection."

She said Ernst & Young's computer forensic examiners spent two full days
in the union's offices last week, copying hard drives. 

Griffin said his Web site has had more traffic than ever in the past
month, but far fewer postings from visitors. Of those who aren't afraid to
comment in the open forum section of the Web site, a much smaller percentage 
of the writers are identifying themselves, Griffin said.

"It's like they are running scared, with good reason," Griffin said.

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