by Mike Hall, Jun 7, 2007

Capt. John Prater, ALPA president,  (left) was one of several union leaders, including AFA-CWA President Pat Friend (center), who testified before Congress this week.

Workers and their unions are getting more opportunities to be heard by Congress on important work and family issues now that a decade-plus of a Republican majority in both House and Senate is over.

So far this week, Fire Fighters (IAFF), Air Line Pilots (ALPA), Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) and the AFL-CIO testified on workers’ rights, safety and global trade. Today, Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) President Baldemar Velasquez is set to testify on U.S. and guest worker rights before the full House Education and Labor Committee.

Here’s a quick look.

Public Safety Workers: Across the country, tens of thousands of firefighters, police officers and other first responders have no collective bargaining rights—state laws deny these workers those basic rights. But H.R. 980, the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, would give public safety workers the right to discuss workplace issues with their employers.

Kevin O’Connor, IAFF assistant to the president, told the Education and Labor’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions what happens when first responders have collective bargaining rights:

Almost every day in almost every corner of America, representatives of frontline fire fighters are sitting down with their fire chief or public safety director to discuss how to do their job more effectively and more safely.

The purpose of this bill is to have 50 state laws that give fire fighters and police officers access to a bargaining process that fosters cooperation between public safety officers and the agencies that employ them, a process that is working well in 30 states and creating an atmosphere in which all parties are stakeholders in improving safety and making communities more secure.

Subcommittee Chairman Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) says the public safety demands of a post Sept. 11 world have markedly increased workplace pressures on public safety workers—and bargaining rights provide an avenue to deal with these demands. 

These brave men and women, who risk their lives each day and serve as our first line of defense against natural disasters, terrorists, criminals, medical emergencies, etc., deserve more than the status quo. The least Congress can do is provide the right for every public safety officer to meet at the table with their employer to discuss ways to improve the safety of their community and the well-being of their families.

Check out Andrews testimony on Youtube. and click here to read O’Connor’s full testimony and here for his comments on Youtube.

Airline Safety

At the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation, Capt. John Prater, ALPA President, and AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend testified the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules on flight crew fatigue fall far short of what is needed to ensure passenger safety.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) annually issues a “Most Wanted” list of improvements in airline safety, but the FAA is under no obligation to implement the recommended safety measures. One of those recommendations emphasizes the need for much tougher and detailed duty time and rest requirements. Prater said:

Airliners can cover 12 to 14 time zones, for more than 16 hours of continuous flight, easily traveling more than 9,000 miles. And so-called regional jets fly coast to coast. This different world requires different rules. Unfortunately, current FAA rules do not adequately address fatigue research, circadian rhythms, and realistic sleep and rest requirements. The lack of a defined duty limit in the regulations illustrates our concerns perfect.

Federal regulations require airline pilots to receive 8 hours off between flying. This does not equal rest. By the time a pilot finishes up paperwork, catches the airport shuttle, checks into the hotel, and grabs a bite to eat, and then showers, dresses, and leaves in time to get through security the next day, he or she is lucky to get 5 hours to sleep. That leads to a massive sleep deficit and chronic fatigue. ALPA strongly urges you to push the FAA to modernize flight- and duty-time regulations and rest requirements for the safety of the traveling public.

Friend told the subcommittee that flight attendant fatigue is a serious workplace and safety issue for airlines and passengers. But the NTSB recommendations do not include flight attendants as part of its flight crew fatigue recommendations.

Fatigue is a very real and serious concern for the flight attendant workforce and poses a potentially dangerous risk for the safety of the aviation system. Multiple studies have shown that reaction time and performance diminish with fatigue and can ultimately cause an unacceptable situation for safety and security sensitive employees. In fact, last year, the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) issued a report that concluded that flight attendants are “experiencing fatigue and tiredness and as such, is a salient issue warranting further evaluation.”

The NTSB must further investigate and recommend changes to address the safety concern of flight attendant fatigue before a serious incident happens. It is crucial that we be just as concerned with flight attendant fatigue as pilot and mechanic fatigue if we hope to achieve the NTSB’s stated goal of preventing accidents and saving lives.

Prater also urged the NTSB to add to its list the need for industry-wide adoption of non-punitive safety reporting programs, such as the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP), and increased training levels for today’s new-hire pilots who are less experienced than pilots hired in the past.

Airline pilots are the ultimate safety net in our industry. That’s why ALPA believes that non-punitive safety reporting programs should be high on the NTSB’s “Most Wanted” list. We consider them standard-issue, must-have items for airline safety.

Click here to read Prater’s full testimony.

Yesterday on the Senate side of Capitol Hill, the AFL-CIO told the Senate Finance Committee that the nation’s jobless programs such as Unemployment Insurance and the Trade Adjustment Assistance need to be strengthened to meet the needs of millions of Americans whose jobs are shipped overseas. Click here to read our coverage of the hearing.

Tomorrow we will update you on Velasquez’s appearance before the House Education and Labor Committee where members are examining abuses in the nation’s current guest worker program and the impact on guest workers, U.S. workers and the nation’s economy.

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