In only a few days, more than 12,000 ALPA pilots have declared their disbelief and ironclad opposition to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) tentative decision to allow a foreign airline to serve the United States with a business plan that clearly seeks to undermine labor standards and would put U.S. airlines at a competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace and cost airline worker jobs.
Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) business plan, which was devised to allow it to avoid Norwegian labor, tax, and regulatory laws, is inconsistent with the intent of the U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement (ATA).
The DOT is charged with encouraging fair wages and working conditions and ensuring that U.S. airlines maintain a strong competitive position globally and enforcing the labor provision in the ATA that states that opportunities provided by that agreement are not to be used to undermine labor standards. Yet, the U.S. government has taken a position that does just the opposite. The result threatens the jobs of pilots and other airline industry employees across the nation.
Airline passengers, air cargo shippers, airline employees, and their friends and families must hold the U.S. government accountable for creating a fair and free marketplace in which U.S. airlines can do business. A strong and competitive U.S. airline industry moves products and ideas across the country and around the globe. Its success helps drive the U.S. economy and provides jobs.
More than 12,000 airline pilots, many tens of thousands of airline workers, federal lawmakers, concerned passengers, and air cargo shippers have called on the Obama administration to enforce U.S. trade agreements and ensure fair and free competition for U.S. airlines and their workers. We need your help today to #DenyNAI. Join us now!