Air Traffic Controllers And Flight Attendants Praise Passage Of 5 Year FAA Reauthorization Bill

[Omaha Steve]

https://nhlabornews.com/2018/10/controllers-and-flight-attendants-praise-passage-of-5-year-faa-reauthorization-bill/

Today U.S. Senate passed a five-year Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill with overwhelming bipartisan support. For the first time since 1982, the FAA will receive a full 5-year reauthorization.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Paul Rinaldi stated, “The five-year reauthorization is a key part of providing long-term stability for the FAA, which NATCA has advocated for over the last several years. It supports air traffic control services, staffing, hiring and training, long-term modernization, preventative maintenance, ongoing modernization of the physical infrastructure, and maintaining services to all segments of our nation’s diverse aviation community.”

The 50,000 Flight Attendants at 20 airlines represented by the Association of Flight Attendants–CWA, AFL-CIO (AFA), today cheered the passage of a five-year FAA Reauthorization Bill including a 10 hour minimum rest provision to combat Flight Attendant fatigue. The bill includes more Flight Attendant safety priorities including forever banning knives on planes, no voice calls on planes, and extending the smoking ban to e-cigarettes.

“Flight Attendants cheer the passage of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 with a provision to combat Flight Attendant fatigue by increasing minimum rest from 8 hours to 10 hours,” said AFA International President Sara Nelson. “This bill closes a safety loophole while improving Flight Attendant health and achieving equal minimum rest with our flight deck counterparts.”

“Over 100,000 Flight Attendants from around the country made calls, signed postcards, rallied, repeatedly visited congressional offices and took other actions to achieve this outcome today. This bill lifts standards for Flight Attendants across the industry and addresses serious safety, health and security issues in our workplace – the passenger cabin,” Nelson concluded.

Along with the 10 hour rule, AFA pushed for a number of safety initiatives to be included in the bill, like:

Ban of Voice Calls on Planes
No Knives on Planes Ever Again
Air Quality: Technologies to Combat Contaminated Bleed Air
Require DOJ to Establish Reporting Process for Sexual Misconduct
Expanded Human Trafficking Training for Airline Personnel
The full list of AFA Safety Initiatives can be found on their full press release, here: http://www.afacwa.org/afa-faa-2018-pass