Norwegian Air International (NAI), a subsidiary of a Norwegian airline, has headquartered its operations in Ireland to take advantage of lower labor and regulatory standards. This runs counter to U.S. law and the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement. NAI’s business plan has called for hiring pilots and Flight Attendants under individual contracts that run $18,000 a year for Flight Attendants or utilize pilots based in Asia to fly between Europe and the United States without serving Ireland.
Despite calls from AFA, ALPA, and other U.S., and European labor groups, U.S. and European passenger carriers, and more than 200 bipartisan members of Congress, the DOT announced Friday, April 15 that it will tentatively approve NAI’s application for a foreign air carrier permit. AFA has already voiced our strong opposition to this decision.
Help stop this by participating in our call to action today!
The NAI scheme threatens our career and the future of the U.S. aviation industry. A flags-of-convenience model in the U.S. shipping industry has already forced U.S. companies out of the market and lost more than 97,000 jobs. Should NAI be allowed to operate into the U.S., we are potentially looking at a similar result for Flight Attendant jobs.
TAKE ACTION NOW! Register your objection to the DOT ruling to allow Norwegian Air International to operate on an Irish certificate and trample labor standards in the U.S. and E.U.
We need each and every Flight Attendant and the traveling public to take the following actions. We only have a few weeks to stop this threat to our jobs!
- Fill out the form to register your objection to NAI with the DOT. The deadline is May 6, 2016.
- Call your Representatives and tell them to support HR 5090. Find your Representative at house.gov and call their D.C. and home offices.
“I am a Flight Attendant and constituent. I am urging you to co-sponsor H.R. 5090, to enforce the high labor standards negotiated in the E.U./U.S. Open Skies agreement. And, I urge you to also sign on to the Collins/Garamendi letter to Secretary Foxx to deny the NAI foreign air carrier permit. We can’t let U.S. aviation be destroyed like U.S. shipping. This is about my job, our nation’s economy and our safety and security.”
- Join the picket line in front of the White House on May 12 to show our unity and strength in opposition to the recent tentative approval of NAI.
WHAT: Airline Workers Mobilize to #DenyNAI
WHEN: Thursday, May 12 at 12:00pm ET
WHERE: 1601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20050
WHO:
- Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA)
- Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA)
- International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)
- Transport Workers Union of America (TWU)
- The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD)
Don’t delay—take action now!
In solidarity,
Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green, Brice McGee; and MEC Government Affairs Committee Chairperson Bev Bullock
