Flight Attendant Union Endorses Joe Biden For President
October 27, 2020 (Washington, D.C.) — The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO (AFA) Board of Directors endorses the election of Vice President Joe Biden as the next President of the United States. AFA International President Sara Nelson said in a statement:
“This is not just an endorsement. This is our lives. People are losing their homes right now; falling ill and unable to get another job without access to routine medical care that keeps chronic illness at bay and allows them to otherwise live a normal life; moving their children and all the belongings they can fit into their cars and trying to survive as single parents or two parents out of work. We won’t be able to retroactively restore the lives taken as the despair becomes too great. These are the very real experiences of Flight Attendants we represent and it didn’t have to be this way.
"When I was a new union president in 2014, we worked directly with the White House on the plan for aviation to stop the spread of communicable disease at transportation's door. It worked and together - government, industry, and unions - we kept people safe. The expertise and leadership put in place came directly out of Vice President Biden’s office. Not only did we have a domestic plan, the United States of America used our resources and expertise to go to the source of the contagion and help contain it before it spread throughout the world. This is the America we know and in aviation we need this kind of leadership like never before.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role government plays in ensuring the safety and security of the airline industry, our health both on the job and off, the relations with the rest of the world that give us the freedom to fly and compete in a global market, and the conditions under which we negotiate. Joe Biden has plans and a track record that respects and advances all of these issues. We need him as our president and we need to move forward as a country together.
“Joe Biden has stood with AFA and CWA members over his years in public service. His agenda starts with a national plan to combat COVID-19, which is essential to recovery of our jobs and the air service infrastructure that serves as the backbone of our economy. Biden knows that workers deserve to be safe on the job. He is an outspoken proponent of emergency temporary OSHA standards to require basic protections for frontline workers and provide priority access to PPE, testing, good jobs, and safety nets that keep our economy intact. He also plans to implement our 10-hours rest, which was made law in 2018 and has been stalled by the administration since that time.
“Joe Biden has a solid record on the issues that are critical for working families: bargaining rights including the right to strike and the right to organize without interference; family and medical leave; a functioning democracy that budgets for the people not the most wealthy; and, protecting access to healthcare and securing earned retirement benefits.”
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, representing American Flight Attendants, also endorsed Joe Biden today.
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The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, (AFA) AFL-CIO represents nearly 50,000 Flight Attendants at 17 airlines. AFA is the union that has advanced the Flight Attendant profession for 75 years, beating back discrimination and improving wages, benefits, working conditions, and aviation safety, health and security in the aircraft cabin. AFA also partners with the 700,000-member strong Communications Workers of America (CWA), AFL-CIO. Visit us at www.afacwa.org.
