The TUC in Brighton this week has pledged to resist the national
ID card scheme "with all means at its disposal", including
industrial and legal action.
The
motion, tabled by pilots' union BALPA, was carried
overwhelmingly by TUC delegates.
The government plans to introduce national ID cards for airside
workers from next year, but BALPA said that carrying a national ID
should not be obligatory for employees.
The TUC motion puts unions on a collision course with the
government over civil liberties.
Guy Herbert, general secretary of the
NO2ID pressure group,
told a TUC fringe meeting that the Identity Cards Act 2006 made
those taking part in industrial action that might interfere with
the operation of the ID database liable to up to 10 years'
imprisonment.
Herbert said, "Unions certainly did not approve that, even if
304 Labour MPs saw fit to vote for it. The Tolpuddle Martyrs got
shorter sentences, and that was a public outrage in an era when you
could be hanged for stealing goods worth a shilling."
Nationals from outside the EU will be issued with ID cards from
this November.
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