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Government Affairs Report: July 2002

Author: Debbie Golombek, UAL MEC Government Affairs Committee Chair

Before I begin this month’s report I would like to add my welcome to the new Members of the United MEC! I look forward to working with you and I encourage any questions about AFA’s legislative and political activities. Your Local Council office should have a Congressional Directory for the 107^th Congress, but if you cannot locate it and need one, please let me know.

Legislative Issues

Flight Attendant Certification

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires Flight Attendants board commercial aircraft and establishes the basic training required of Flight Attendants. While pilots, flight engineers, navigators, dispatchers and air traffic controllers are certified, Flight Attendants, the on-board safety experts, are not certified. AFA believes it is time to certify Flight Attendants to ensure that we are properly trained and qualified. We believe that the lack of certification prevents Flight Attendants from being treated in the same manner as other aviation safety professionals.

Safety and security are our primary concerns. We do more than evacuate airplanes in emergency situations. We are the first line of defense dealing with hijackers, terrorists and abusive passengers. We are the fire department at 30,000 feet who must be able to detect and fight fires. We are the paramedics effectively handling in-flight medical emergencies ranging from heart attacks to turbulent related injuries. We assist passengers in aircraft decompressions and are the on-site bomb detection squad. In addition, we perform routine safety and service duties on board the aircraft.

Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) have committed to introducing legislation to certify Flight Attendants. AFA’s proposal for certification is currently being drafted in to legislative language. I spoke with Rep. Lowey and her Legislative Assistant Kate Winkler at a Lowey For Congress fund raiser and they are both very excited about this. Enclosed is a sample newsletter article you can use in your Local Council newsletters or in your electronic communications. It is important that our membership be aware of this pending legislation.

Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act

The Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act passed in the House of Representatives, on July 10, 2001, by a vote of 310-113. This bill establishes a two-year pilot program to deputize volunteer pilots as Federal law enforcement officer to defend the flight decks against acts of terrorism. This bill also contains language addressing flight attendant training including requiring both classroom and hands-on situational training in elements of self-defense.

This legislation is still pending in the U.S. Senate. The Senate version of "arming pilots" contains comprehensive Flight Attendant training language. Currently, arming pilots is opposed by the Senate Democrats, the Transportation Security Administration and the White House.

Airline Dispute Resolution

A legislative campaign currently underway and orchestrated by the nations major air carriers is designed to severely undermine the collective bargaining process and weaken the rights of all airline employees. Both American Airlines CEO Don Carty and Delta Airlines CEO, Leo Mullin have been touting the need for mandatory arbitration to resolve airline labor disputes.

In speaking at the Merrill Lynch 2002 Global Transportation Leaders Conference on June 11, Mr Carty stated "Simple common sense demands that we at least try to improve upon a system that repeatedly forces the involvement of the President of the United States in intra-company disagreements, is based on a law developed for railroads three quarters of a century ago, and imposes enormous costs on our customers, our shareholders and our employees themselves."

"I think a solution is possible - one that respects the collective bargaining process, but keeps customers, communities, airports, shareholders and everyone else from being held hostage in the process. In recent months, I and others, have proposed some form of mandatory arbitration, which would include what’s known as the "last best offer" approach. The way it works is, after a period of negotiation, management and labor provide a last best offer to arbitrators, who then chose one or the other."

"The beauty of this approach is it forces both sides to the center, and avoids a scenario in which all the bargaining leverage belongs to the party that can impose a strike that neither the company nor the traveling public can afford"

These remarks were taken from the American Airlines web site.

This may sound "reasonable" to airline CEO’s but this style of negotiations would not "reform" airline bargaining - it would destroy it. Contracts would be settled through a third party and the airlines would have no incentive to negotiate fairly.

As I reported last year, The Airline Dispute Resolution bill, S. 1327, was introduced by Senator John McCain (R-AZ). This bill would reform the Railway Labor Act to impose this baseball type arbitration process.

***ACTION ALERT***

I have included a sample draft letter in my report. Let your two Senators know how you feel about this legislation and keep this dangerous proposal from moving forward. This legislation has no companion bill in the House so letters should only be sent to the U.S. Senate.

Congressional Resolution Honoring Flight Attendants

The U.S. Senate concurrent resolution honoring the heroism an courage displayed by Flight Attendants on a daily basis, passed by Unanimous consent on June 19, 2002. Before final passage Senate Resolution 110 had 62 cosponsors. This resolution expresses profound gratitude for the faithful service provided by Flight Attendants to make air travel safe and honors our courage and dedication.

Our work now moves to the U.S. House of Representatives to gain cosponsors and final passage for the House resolution recognizing our courage and heroism. This is House resolution 401 introduced by the leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Chairman Don Young (R-AK) and Ranking Member James Oberstar (D-MN) and Aviation Subcommittee Chair John Mica (R-FL) and Ranking Member William Lipinski (D-IL).

Our role as the first line of defense in the aircraft cabin became unmistakably clear on September 11, 2001. As we begin to heal from the tragic events of that day and move towards the one year anniversary of losing our friends and colleagues, passage of the resolution would mean a lot to our Flight Attendant community. We have heard from Flight Attendants who feel that we have not received the same recognition as the fire fighters, police and other rescue workers. This resolution helps gain that recognition.

Representatives Don Young (R-AK) and James Oberstar (D-MN) have written a "Dear Colleague" letter which has been distributed to all House offices, inviting other Members of the House to cosponsor H. Con. Res. 401. The House resolution currently has the following 49 cosponsors, so there are over 380 House offices that need to be contacted and urged to cosponsor this resolution.

During the MEC meeting I will have an opportunity to discuss a grassroots strategy on this issue with our MEC C & E Chair, Sara Dela Cruz, on communicating a message to our membership. I would also like to ask the Members of the MEC to call their U.S. Representative (if they are not listed as a cosponsor) and urge your Congress member to cosponsor and support this resolution! .

I will have a sample phone script and telephone numbers available.

GET OUT THE VOTE AND ELECTION ACTIVITIES

U.S. General Election November 5, 2002

Mark Your Calendars! There are less than 110 day left until General Election Day. Although 2002 is not a Presidential Election year, all 435 offices of the U.S. House of Representatives are up for election as well as 34 Senate seats. Because the two major parties are heading into the 2002 midterm elections very evenly matched, each race is unusually important. Remember that less than two years ago, 110 million votes were cast for president, but the final outcome was decided by just 537 votes.

This year, Democrats must defend 14 Senate seats, compared with 20 for the Republicans. Pollsters are predicting at least 13 clearly competitive Senate races including Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.

With a six seat majority in the U.S. House, the Republicans will pull out all the stops to keep this majority. And speaking of the House...

Flight Attendants Running For Congress

As you know, AFA has two Flight Attendants running for the United States Congress. Our own Elle Kurpiewski is running against Representative Mary Bono in newly created District 45 in California. Elle K’s campaign has been picking up momentum. Elle has received endorsements from a large number of Unions including the IAM, ALPA (UAL PAC), Transport Workers Union, Firefighter, Auto Workers, Ironworkers, UNITE, IBEW, AFSCME, SEIU, Carpenters, CWA, and the Teamsters (to name a few).

Elle’s campaign has picked up momentum since the Primary, and she has been hard at work campaigning and fund raising.

The second AFA member running for Congress is Stevan Drobac, Jr., a US Airways flight attendant from Pittsburgh. Stevan won his primary election against his Democratic challenger in the Pennsylvania State Primary on May 21. Stevan will face GOP Representative Melissa Hart in the General Election in November.

Shirley Barber came up with a great fund raising and "get the word out" idea for Elle K. She suggests that we set up a small table with campaign literature, to collect campaign contributions from flight attendants, at our Local Council meetings preceding the October MEC/BOD meetings.

Since these meeting are sometimes held with other AFA Councils you could not only have Elle K’s campaign literature but Stevan Drobac’s as well. I will arrange to have Elle’s campaign literature either sent to your Local Legislative Affairs Chair or your Local Council office.

Upcoming Primaries:

August 6 Kansas, Michigan and Missouri
August 13 Colorado
August 20 Wyoming
August 27 Alaska and Oklahoma

FLIGHT PAC

While I was in Washington in June, to attend the House Transportation Committee mark up on H.R. 4635, the Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act, I represented FlightPAC at fund raising events for Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representatives Nita Lowey (D-NY), Mel Watt (D-NC), George Miller (D-CA), Joe Baca (D-CA), Rush Holt (D-NJ) and David Phelps (D-IL).

These events were very small so I had the opportunity to discuss Flight Attendant training, safety and security issues as well the MEC’s position on United’s request for concessions from Flight Attendants and our recent wage arbitration proceedings. Senator Durbin told me that UAL CEO Jack Creighton had met with him to discuss United’s financial condition and was interested in hearing our position.

Jennifer Colosimo, LAX Council 12, Legislative Affairs/FlightPAC Chair, will be attending a fund raiser in San Diego for Representative Susan Davis (D-CA) hosted by Representative James Oberstar (D-MN) in August.

If you are interested in attending a Congressional fund raiser that you have been invited to, please contact AFA’s Government Affairs Department. If the Member of Congress is scheduled to receive FlightPAC money, your attendance could possibly be arranged. These fund raising events are a perfect opportunity for Members of Congress to hear our views on the current issues.

As always, if you have any questions regarding this report, please feel free to e-mail at legislative@unitedafa.org