(The TTD issued the following on August 9.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — “The Bush administration has an all talk, no action approach to transportation security, a policy of chronic inaction that is failing to protect the traveling public, workers, and homeland security,” Edward Wytkind, President of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, said today.
Wytkind made these comments in response to the Administration missing – for the second time in recent months – a congressionally-mandated deadline to end safety and security loopholes in the repair of U.S. aircraft at unsafe and uninspected foreign repair facilities.
Congress had demanded that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issue, by August 8, new security procedures for aircraft repairs at Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-licensed facilities in other countries. Also, the FAA is five months delinquent in meeting its congressional mandate to ensure that these foreign repair stations meet the same safety standards required of U.S. facilities and their employees.
Even in the face of a scathing report by the Inspector General at the Department of Transportation that revealed weak oversight of aircraft maintenance performed overseas by third-party contractors, the Bush administration has consistently resisted calls – both by AFL-CIO mechanic unions and by Republicans and Democrats in Congress – to close these dangerous loopholes in aviation safety and security.
“New federal safety and security inspections can’t begin until the Bush administration issues the new rules required by law. The world is too dangerous for us to tolerate even one more day of foot-dragging,” Wytkind said.
TTD represents 35 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org