The largest flight attendant union in the United States, which represents more than 55,000 crew members at 20 airlines, including Alaska, Spirit and United Airlines, has voted unanimously to endorse Kamala Harris for President.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) is the latest labor group to support the Harris campaign, which has been buoyed by the Biden-Harris administration’s strong support for unions.
In its resolution in support of Harris, the flight attendant union cited the Vice President’s strong support for the labor movement while slamming former President Trump’s time in office.
Other unions that have already thrown their weight behind the Harris campaign ahead of November’s crunch Presidential election include the 1.9 million-member Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which is the biggest federation of unions in the country.
“The election of the President of the United States has a direct impact on safety, health, security, collective bargaining, and job security of Flight Attendants as Departments and Agencies of the Administration oversee each of these items in our workplace and fundamental rights to equality and justice at work,” the flight attendant union said in its resolution.
Despite the fact that no flight attendant workgroup has been given permission to go on strike during President Joe Biden’s time in office, the union said that the “Biden-Harris administration has affirmed our right to strike under the Railway Labor Act leading recently to tentative agreements at Alaska, American, and Gate Gourmet.”
In contrast, the union claimed that President Trump had tried to erode the rights of flight attendants by “wiping out” a minimum rest period of 10 hours from flight to flight for crew members.
Led by firebrand union activist Sara Nelson, who is often described as the most powerful flight attendant in the United States, the AFA-CWA said it would “redouble” its efforts to encourage all flight attendants to cast their ballot in the Presidential election.
However, while the union’s leadership has shown strong support for Harris, the resolution says it will only encourage crew members to “make their own decision” in November’s election.
AFA-CWA is, so far, at least, the first flight attendant union to have come out in support of Harris, with two other major unions yet to make an official endorsement. The Transport Workers Union (TWU) represents 155,000 workers in airline, rail, and transit industries, while the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) represents tens of thousands of crew members at American Airlines.
Unions are supposed to represent all. This is so stupid that there is political favoritism.
Labor unions in the US have leadership that is well aware of how Democrats are more inclined to protect unionization and union efforts while the Republicans are more into sort of misnomered“right to work” policies that are at core about propping up business opposition to labor unions.
It would be shocking if this labor union or the bigger US labor unions were to be more favorably inclined to support a Republican candidate for US President than a Democratic candidate for such.
The NLRB appointments by Republicans tend to be worse for labor union members than the Democratic appointments.
That’s why the president of the Teamsters spoke at the REPUBLICAN convention, right? Your statement is 50 years out of date; today’s left represent the elite, academia, the administrative state and the otherwise stupid. The FA union chiefs, firmly implanted in the latter group, have chosen to step out of their wheelhouse and do something stupid.
OMG, do you live in the real world, or just talking points?