Slashdot Mirror
Northwest Searches Employees' Home Computers
J.t.Qbe writes "The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Northwest Airlines has begun searching home computers belonging to some of its employees for e-mail evidence that the employees helped organize a 'sickout' over New Year's. Scary stuff. Still eager to take that 'free PC' from your employer?" The best quote is from a corporate lawyer who redefines commercial speech to be speech about a corporation rather than speech by one: "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."
Update: 02/09 20:41 by michael : Some slashdot readers are not reading the story before commenting. The computers in question are the personally-owned machines of their employees. The company is fighting the union in court, and obtained a court order to search the personal property of these people who are not even union officials.
If these people just stepped aside when a private investigator said "move, I'm searching your stuff on behalf of your boss" and it was THEIR personal computer, then they're really, really less informed about their rights than they ought to be.
If these people just stepped aside when a cop said "move, I'm searching your stuff on behalf of your boss" and DIDN'T have a warrant, they're really, really less informed about their rights than they ought to be. And somewhere there's a cop who misused his badge and needs disciplined.
If they stepped aside when a cop with a warrant said "move, I'm searching your stuff on behalf of your boss" then we've got bigger problems. This is what the article seems to say. The day a company can order a judge to grant a warrant with no evidence is the day we've started a slide into some Orwellian fantasy. It seems to me that either these folks did something dumb to raise suspicion, in which case a warrant could have been issued for correspondance, or this "federally authorized" search is actually not. The fact that they say it's just like taking a deposition makes me wonder if in fact it was authorized. I'm not a lawyer, but hell, I don't think you can enter someone's private residence and take their stuff under the guise of "fact finding".
My question is, WHY THESE PEOPLE? And what was the grounds for granting a warrant for getting their correspondances? Was one actually granted, or is this just a big mess that's slipping under the nose of some local judge who's busy with an overly full docket? Any attorney out there care to tell me if a "search warrant" covers anything and everything, or if a separate order has to be obtained to wiretap or monitor correspondance?
--
--
Just lurking, thanks!
--
(disclaimer: my spouse is a non-union NWA employee working in the IT department)
NWA obtained a legal court order to search for evidence of an *illegal* action by the flight attendants. If this was searching for paper rather than computer records, would Slashdot even fucking care? Speech may not be less free because it happens on a computer, but it isn't MORE free, either.
Some background on this case, since the media usually fails us... NWA has been in contract negotiations for i think three years now with the flight attendants, who are represented by the Teamsters. This fall, NWA and the Teamsters negotiators agreed on a contract, and the Teamsters took it to the flight attendants. The flight attendants voted it down. They responded with their list of demands, which would make NWA the industry leader in every single area of employee benefits for flight attendants, and refused to budge from that. The federal mediator then cancelled negotiations, on the grounds that the *flight attendants* were not negotiating in good faith.
Now, federal law prohibits airline employees from striking without court permission. Obviously, if the flight attendants were booted from the negotiating table for acting in bad faith, they aren't going to be allowed to strike. This includes actions like sick-outs. So, when they staged a sick-out, it was basically an illegal action. However, union officials have denied that it was officially organized or sanctioned, because they realize it will further undermine their position.
So presumably, NWA went to court to get the order to search personal computers for evidence that union officials were indeed behind the sick-out - a big win for NWA in court, and a deserved one.
I could make a lot of other points here, but i'll close with this one - speech should be no more or less protected on a computer than on any other media. If union officials stage an illegal action and then deny it, the company has a right to get a court order to search for evidence to the contrary, whether those records are on paper or on computer.
---
Hand me that airplane glue and I'll tell you another story.
That being said, I'm disgusted that Northwest is being allowed to search the home computers of the employees. If Northwest owns the computers, that's one thing. But if they're searching employees' private property, they need to be stopped. Even if the workers did organize a sick-out in violation of their contracts, they should still be entitled to privacy on their own computers.
Moral of the story is, use PGP religiously, and don't trust anyone. Especially the people you work for.
--