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RESIST SCANNERS' USE

Resist Scanners' Use

To the Editor:

As a hard-working employee of the City of New York for more than 23 years, I am appalled at management's implementation of the Hand-Scanner for so-called purposes of "time-keeping."

The reason given is that it will make it easier to do payroll once the entire city is using this highly intrusive system of "keeping track" of employees' time.

Let's be honest here, management wants nothing more than to have us under a microscope. They need to know when we come and when we go. Could it be that management itself is so corrupt that they assume that everyone else is corrupt too? Face it folks ... it's not about "time-keeping," it's about "tab-keeping."

How long do we have to be subjected to this insult to our integrity before the unions stand up to management and say "no?" It's bad enough that we have to sign residency clauses to live in one of the most expensive cities in the country. It's bad enough that our raises don't cover the cost of living here in the five boroughs. It's bad enough that many city employees can't afford to own homes because property taxes and other costs here are so high, and if they do own homes, they have to work two or three jobs to keep them.

Now management wants to own our hand-prints too. And please do not give me the bogus explanation that the scanner only measures my hand. That's an insult to my intelligence. Not everyone in the city system has the sheep mentality. Not everyone does what they're ordered just because management says to do it. I ask questions, and I expect intelligent answers.

So far I have gotten none.

I feel that the use of the scanners is an intrusion on my privacy. Every time I am forced to put my hand on that plate, I feel just a bit more violated. The scanners are nothing more than a mechanism used by management to keep us under their thumb. Let me ask you one question: who keeps tabs on management, with their back-room dealings and their inept and prejudiced ways of dealing with employees?

Come on, union leaders ... stand up for us just this one time and stand up in force. If we let this type of treatment continue, some day they'll want to implant chips under our skin so they can see where we are every minute of the day and night. George Orwell's 1984 has arrived in 2007, and for those of you who don't understand what I mean by that ... go to the library and take out the book and read it. Then tell me that it's all right to just blindly take orders from anyone who issues them. Tell me then that the city system is not moving towards anarchy.

PHYLLIS R. PACK, PAA1, CWA Local 1180