Pumping On the Line
June 29, 2021 — Flight Attendants face a number of challenges in the workplace as they return to work after the birth of a child, especially returning to work as a nursing Flight Attendant mom.
Often nursing Flight Attendants have to choose between continuing to nurse newborns or returning to work in order to support their families. Flight Attendants face many unique challenges to pumping including securing sufficient time to pump during the duty day and finding a private place to express milk. Flight Attendants may have to stop breastfeeding before they had planned because of these challenges.
There are currently no federal protections for nursing Flight Attendants. Legislation introduced this year in Congress hopes to change that by requiring that employers, including air carriers, provide reasonable break time as well as a private place to express milk. This would be a monumental step in the right direction. Right now the bill includes airline employees, but airline management is pushing to exclude Flight Attendants and airline workers. There's no reason to exclude us. We know it can be done.
