10 HOURS REST PETITION
May 3, 2019 — Thanks to the advocacy of thousands of Flight Attendants and AFA's focused #FightFor10 campaign, we achieved 10 hours minimum rest in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, signed into law on October 5, 2018.
This was based on seven Congressional fatigue studies that confirmed Flight Attendant fatigue exists, and the most important way to combat it is to ensure more rest. Flight Attendant health studies confirm inadequate, interrupted sleep contributes to higher rates of cancer and other health issues for Flight Attendants. And, pilots already have a minimum of 10 hours rest. So our efforts were about safety, health, and equality. And we won with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. The bill confirmed 10 hours rest should be updated in the regulation by November 2018, and previous experience indicated airlines would have up to six months to implement. Based on past practice, Flight Attendants expected to see 10 hours minimum rest reflected in our schedules by June of 2019. But none of these steps have been taken toward implementation.
The Government Shutdown, the 737 Max catastrophes, and the Administration's ideological opposition to new regulation has held up our rest and implementation of hundreds of safety initiatives detailed in the bill. Our rest is the most straightforward directive in the bill. It just needs to happen with a directive to airlines to comply by date certain. But we have learned through multiple conversations with industry, regulators, and other sources all over Washington, Delta Air Lines has been pushing the the Department of Transportation and the FAA to slow down implementation. Now all airlines are saying they will wait for instruction from FAA before complying with the law.
Today, we launched a petition on fightfor10.org to call on DOT and FAA to immediately implement the law, and to encourage members of Congress to hold them accountable. We will ramp up additional actions in the coming weeks and months to hold airlines and regulators responsible for complying with the law
We fought for dozens of safety issues included in the bill, and we'll keep fighting until all of them are fully implemented and enforced.
More on fightfor10.org
