House Republicans Reject Safety and Health Protections For Flight Attendants and Passengers
Washington, DC – The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) is redoubling its efforts to gain significant health and safety protections for Flight Attendants and passengers in the aircraft cabin. Flight Attendants represented by AFA are targeting specific Congressional offices that could make the difference in health and safety for crewmembers and the traveling public. The union is pressing the issue forward even as the United States House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee rejected an attempt to include important OSHA protections for Flight Attendants in their Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Bill.
“OSHA standards for Flight Attendants and passengers have been kept out of the aircraft cabin for far too long and that means that everyone inside the aircraft is subject to an environment absent sanitation standards, temperature standards and proper procedures for clean up of biohazards,” said Veda Shook, AFA International President. “We are extremely disappointed in the House Republicans who ignored the basic health and safety protections for Flight Attendants and passengers. AFA Flight Attendants will hold their Representatives accountable and make calls to offices over and over until they do the right thing by ensuring health and safety work place protections in the aircraft cabin.”
The Association of Flight Attendants has mounted a massive grassroots advocacy campaign on this issue and AFA members are committed to achieving a legislative win for the health and safety of Flight Attendants and passengers. The FAA Reauthorization bill has been extended 17 times over three years, delaying critical safety and health protections for Flight Attendants and the traveling public.
For over 60 years, the Association of Flight Attendants has been serving as the voice for Flight Attendants in the workplace, in the aviation industry, in the media and on Capitol Hill. Nearly 50,000 Flight Attendants at 21 airlines come together to form AFA, the world’s largest Flight Attendant union. AFA is part of the 700,000-member strong Communications Workers of America (CWA), AFL-CIO. Visit us at www.afacwa.org.
