Government Affairs

Airline Crew (FMLA)  Act(HR2744)

We Did It! - HR2744 Passes the House

On Tuesday, May 20 the House of Representatives passed the Airline Crew (FMLA) Technical Corrections Act (HR2744). The final count was 402 to 9, an impressive and substantial majority.  The successful passage of this bill is due to the grass roots effort by all of us that sent in letters and called our elected officials asking them to support this very important legislation.  We would like to especially express our gratitude to Shane Larson, AFA-CWA Director of Government Affairs for his guidance as well as the other Government Affairs activists at our airline and from the other 21 AFA-CWA represented carriers that worked tirelessly to make this happen. A special thank you to Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) one of the original cosponsors of the bill that helped us gain other GOP cosponsors. We now must focus on the companion bill in the Senate (S2059). We currently have 24 cosponsors and would like to continue the bi-partisan trend that we currently enjoy in the Senate bill. The hurdle that we face now is educating the Senate on the uniqueness of our schedules, just like we did in the House. For example, the Bush Administration’s Department of Labor (DOL) does not consider our reserve flight attendants full time employees saying that their on-call periods should not be credited toward the hours needed to qualify for FMLA. Clearly they do not understand - We will make them understand. If you have not already done so please call your Senators and let them know how important this law is to all crewmembers. For a phone script and to find your Senators’ contact information please click on the links to the right of this page. To view a video of opening remarks by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) on the House floor click on the link to the right.

Once the Senate bill passes, both bills will be combined and sent to the President for his signature. This new law will not only benefit AFA-CWA flight attendants, but all flight attendants and pilots in the U.S.  Crewmembers will finally be able to meet the defined minimum number of hours for FMLA coverage, (60 percent of a full-time schedule) based on their airline’s monthly flying requirements.  No longer will crewmembers need to negotiate for fair FMLA benefits. We are very proud of this fact once again proving that your Union can be effective in taking issues off the negotiations table through successful legislation.

Albert and Diana