AFA-CWA Sets Rallies 'Get to Work Washington'

AFA-CWA is launching a campaign to press Congress and the administration to address the critical needs of the airline industry and to stop the corporate assault on workers' pensions, health care and jobs, reported AFA-CWA President Pat Friend.

In Washington, flight attendants, other union members and labor supporters will rally just across from the White House on Dec. 14, then hold a candlelight march to Freedom Plaza. Solidarity rallies and marches will be held that same day at airports in San Francisco, Seattle and other locations.

Flight attendants want Congress and regulators to "Get to Work Washington" and end the practices that allow companies to abuse the bankruptcy process in order to strip workers of their retirement security and health care, impose devastating wage cuts and destroy careers.

"Airline management want to turn back the clock on the decades of progress that our unions have made," said Friend. "Flight attendants and other airline workers can no longer bear the burden for Washington's lack of sound aviation policy. Our legislators must take action now before thousands of jobs are lost and the nation is left without one of its most critical industries."

The AFA-CWA Board of Directors has approved a global strike if an AFA-CWA contract is thrown out by a federal bankruptcy court. At least four airlines have filed for bankruptcy protection and are seeking huge cuts in workers' pay and benefits; at least two have threatened to seek to abrogate the flight attendants' contracts if agreement is not reached on the cuts.

Invited to address flight attendants at the Washington event are Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, President Ed Wytkind, Transportation Trades Dept., AFL-CIO, in addition to Friend.