TSA union says Chaffetz was not harassed

A labor union leader says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, was not harassed by Transportation Security Agency officers during a run-in this week at Salt Lake International Airport, and that Chaffetz is the one who chose to stand in line for a "strip-search" machine and then complain loudly.

"Congressman Chaffetz was treated as any other passenger," said Sharon Pinnock, the membership and organization director of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents some local TSA workers.

But Chaffetz reaffirmed Friday to the Deseret News his earlier assertions that the TSA harassed him and ordered him to go through the machine that he has fought against in Congress.

"It's laughable that they would say I would choose to go through that line. Why would I do that?" he said. "This adds to my suspicion that they are harassing based on my bill against whole-body imaging, and my vote against allowing the TSA to unionize."

The spat began Monday when Chaffetz said the TSA ordered him out of a line for a regular metal detector and into the line for what he has called the "strip-search" machine.

The union says that is not how things started. It says Chaffetz himself chose to get in line for the Image Testing Machine, which Pinnock said he could have avoided completely.

"It does seem odd that Congressman Chaffetz would choose to use an image machine that he would like to see banned," Pinnock said.

Chaffetz has passed legislation through the House, but not the Senate, that would allow use of the machines only for secondary searches and would allow people to choose a pat-down search instead.

"We are hard-pressed to understand his thinking on this since he previously had been given a tour of the ITM lane (prior) to this incident and knew quite well what the process could involve," she said.

Chaffetz said when he refused to go through the "strip-search" machine, he was questioned at length and suspicions about him were raised.

He said he was eventually allowed to go through a regular metal detector lane. Even though he did not set it off, he said he was told he was "randomly" chosen to also go through a "pat-down" search.

The TSA in a statement after the initial controversy said anyone can choose not to go through the whole-body imaging machine, but standard procedure is when they refuse they must go through a metal detector followed by a pat-down search.