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The Honorable James
Moran
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Moran,
On Tuesday March 27th, I had the pleasure to meet with a
member of your staff, Tim Aiken, to discuss several
legislative issues concerning the members of the
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. After the meeting
Mr. Aiken asked me how I felt about the Passenger Bill
of Rights (H.R. 1303). After receiving a few details of
H.R. 1303 and reviewing the entire bill I would ask that
you reconsider your support of this legislation.
There are a number of provisions in this legislation
that have no way of being enforced and may possibly put
flight crews in harms way if misunderstood by
passengers. A few examples are:
- Sec. 41782 (b)
Diversions, Delays and Cancellations- Notification of
Passengers in a "timely, reasonable and truthful
manner". This provision provides no definition of
"timely and reasonable". One person's version of
timely could be and often are drastically different
from another's.
- Sec. 41782 (c)
Departure and Arrival Delays- (1) Right of Passengers
to Exit an Aircraft. This provision would require
passengers to exit an aircraft in the case of an
arrival or departure delay exceeding 3 hours with the
exception of "if the pilot of such flight determines
that permitting passengers to deplane would jeopardize
passenger safety and security". This may sound good on
paper but in the real world could be completely
unavailable. Most times during irregular operations
all available gates are occupied by aircraft with no
possible means of exiting the aircraft. As well, if a
gate is available it may not be available to that
specific airline as it may be leased from the
respective airport authority to another airline. Once
again setting the flight crews and specifically flight
attendants up for failure.
- Sec. 41782 (c) 3
Essential Services- "essential needs of passengers at
all times during which the aircraft is on the ground
in the event of a departure and arrival delay,
including the needs of passengers for food...". As you
and your staff are aware that in a post 9/11 world
this does not exist. Most air carriers have reduced or
eliminated all food on domestic routes. Subsequently,
at many small to medium sized airports there are no
catering facilities available except for basic needs
such as water and ice.
- Sec. 41783 (a) 2
Procedures for departure delays- "In carrying out this
subsection, the Secretary shall convene a meeting of
representatives of air carriers, airports and the FAA
to develop procedures to better respond to weather
emergencies resulting in long departure delays" Many
of the aviation employees in the United States are
represented by many labor unions and should be
included in any meeting to establish procedures for
departure delays. Without these labor representatives
at such a meeting, procedures may be established that
would violate the collective bargaining agreements of
the various employees.
There are many pressing
issues confronting aviation today. When meeting with Mr.
Aiken I discussed proposed changes to foreign ownership
as a result of the tentative "open skies" agreement with
the European Union, funding for an extensive crew member
fatigue study and OSHA protection for flight attendants.
These are just a few of the pressing issues to the
flight attendants who call the 8th District home.
I would ask that you please reconsider your support of
this legislation that in real world conditions would do
nothing for passengers and only set up aviation
employees for further failure and harassment.
Sincerely,
Alin Boswell
Cc: Council 41 flight attendants
Patricia Friend, International President Association of
Flight Attendants-CWA
In Solidarity,
Alin Boswell
LEC President, DCA
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA |
