Breaking: Congress Reaches Deal to End FAA Shutdown

As this issue went to press, the House and Senate announced an agreement to extend FAA funding through mid-September, bringing an end to a 12-day partial shutdown of the agency, and sending tens of thousands of FAA employees and private contractors back to work. The temporary funding measure, set to be cleared by Congress Friday, Aug. 5, does not include the anti-labor provisions sought by Republicans to overturn a new NMB rule that makes airline union elections fair and democratic.

CWA condemned Congress for leaving town on recess for the entire month of August without first approving critical reauthorization funding to prevent the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Since July 23, more than 4,000 FAA safety inspectors and other agency employees have been without paychecks, and $2.5 billion worth of airport projects across the nation have come to a halt, prompting the layoffs of nearly 70,000 private contract workers. The cost to the FAA and taxpayers: some $200 million for each week of the shutdown.

At issue in the impasse is a provision Republicans inserted into the House of Representatives version of the FAA Reauthorization bill that would overturn the democratic election "majority vote" rules that the National Mediation Board set in place last year for airline and transportation union elections.

Delta Air Lines, which has vigorously fought efforts by flight attendants and other workers to organize, is the driving force behind the anti-union language in the House's FAA measure.

"It is unconscionable that lawmakers would leave for summer vacation while over 70,000 workers including FAA employees, construction workers, engineers, scientists, architects and others are without a job," said AFA-CWA President Veda Shook. "This complete abdication of responsibility is shortsighted and senseless.

Shook noted that the shutdown was affecting not only aviation workers, but also the critical work of improving the nation's airport infrastructure. "Every day, we fall another day behind in maintaining and advancing the world's best aviation system," she warned.

Republicans have sought to shift their responsibility for this crisis by claiming that the issue is over their efforts to cut some $14 million in subsidies to commercial airlines serving rural airports. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) who is leading an effort to free up the funds and protect airline workers' rights descried the GOP's tactics. "Why are they doing it?" he asked, during remarks on the Senate floor. "I think it's the whole anti-worker thing that started in Wisconsin. Republicans are clinging to it."

Members of AFA-CWA held mobilization actions this week at airports in Oakland, Calif., Houston, Tex., and Kalamazoo, Mich., to bring attention to the shutdown. Throughout August, other events are being planned at airports across the country.