(The TTD issued the following news release on March 7.)
BAL HARBOUR, Fla. — AFL-CIO transportation unions today made it clear that they will oppose any “rule-bending” by our government that would allow Richard Branson to open a new U.S. airline in the face of long-standing U.S. laws limiting the foreign ownership and control of a U.S. carrier.
“Transportation labor will strongly oppose – and spotlight – any proposed rule-bending or suspect interpretation of U.S. law or regulation that would threaten the jobs or rights of U.S. airline workers,” the leaders of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department (TTD) said in a statement adopted today at its winter board meeting.
Branson has long criticized U.S. laws restricting foreign ownership and control to 25 percent of voting stock and 49 percent of equity in an American carrier. He is in the final stages of what transportation union leaders called, “a high-profile beauty contest” being led by public officials in Boston, Northern Virginia, and San Francisco vying to become the headquarters of Branson’s new carrier, Virgin USA.
The TTD statement noted the more than 150,000 airline and aviation industry workers who have lost their jobs since the 9/11 attacks and said that, “it is against this backdrop, that our government has the responsibility to protect the aviation industry and its workers from the obvious agenda of many foreign companies and governments that seek to gain new entry rights into our marketplace.” TTD expressed its opposition to any changes in cabotage laws, which prohibit foreign carriers from serving point-to-point markets in the U.S., saying that in addition to preserving the economic strength the industry, “national security concerns alone should dictate that foreign carriers, often controlled by foreign governments, must not be granted unlimited access to our domestic markets,” the TTD resolution said.
“We must not allow still-struggling U.S. airline workers to become the latest victims of special-interest giveaways and unfair trade policy,” said TTD President Edward Wytkind.
For a copy of the resolution, visit www.ttd.org
TTD represents 35 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org