Following the release of bipartisan legislation today to prohibit Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) Irish-flag subsidiary from violating labor standards in the aviation industry, the Transport Workers Union of America issued the following statement:
“As the Norwegian Air saga continues to rear its ugly head, we are grateful to the members of Congress who stand up against this bogus proposal with commonsense legislation that protects good jobs and fair competition. This bill would fight the Department of Transportation’s effort to allow airlines to flout labor standards in order to pad their bottom lines. It sends a message to any company looking to operate in the United States: if you don’t care about working people, you aren’t welcome here.
“TWU members thank Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) who are sponsoring H.R. 5090 to fight unfair international competition.
“NAI is a model for corporate practices that depress wages and diminish collective bargaining rights. It will contract—or more accurately ‘rent’— its flight crews through a recruitment firm based in Asia, which operates according to inferior labor laws. In doing so, NAI will be able to abuse weak labor protections to undercut U.S. airlines and their employees with significantly lower compensation and benefits.
“Make no mistake about it. This is yet another example of how trade agreements harm America. The U.S. and E.U. are parties to an Air Transport Agreement trade pact that includes explicit commitments to high labor standards. In the past, both the U.S. Department of State and the European Commissioner for Transport hailed the agreement, with the E.U. crowing about how it ‘contributes to high labor standards.’ The sad truth is that neither the U.S. or E.U. is willing to enforce labor protections against a company that is specifically designed to enrich the few at the expense of airline workers on both sides of the Atlantic.”
TWU is part of a labor alliance, representing over 200,000 aviation workers, calling on the Obama administration to enforce U.S. trade agreements and defend good jobs and fair competition. Find out more at ttd.org/denynai.