In an opinion piece published in The Hill on Monday, January 9, AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) President Ed Wytkind delivers to Washington, D.C., readers a view that ALPA also shares: The Norwegian Air International (NAI) case will define President Obama’s aviation legacy.
With its recent decision to grant NAI the authority to serve the United States, the U.S. Department of Transportation failed U.S. workers by sanctioning a foreign airline’s business model that conflicts with the U.S.-EU Open Skies agreement and erodes labor standards.
As a member of the AFL-CIO’s TTD, ALPA fully supports Mr. Wytkind’s view that the U.S. Air Transport Agreement requires that, as it implements the agreement, the U.S. government avoid undermining the labor standards established on either side of the Atlantic.
ALPA believes that the DOT’s action in the NAI case fails this test. Our union echoes in the strongest terms Mr. Wytkind’s statement that “now is the time for the president to prove that . . . commitments negotiated into trade agreements are not empty promises.”