AviationFlight attendants not invited to Hill hearings on airplane security
The House Transportation Security Subcommittee has scheduled an upcoming hearing on Thursday titled “TSA’s Efforts to Advance Risk-Based Security: Stakeholder Perspectives,” but the hearing will not include a representative of America’s flight attendants. This omission has upset the Coalition of Flight Attendant Unions.
The House Transportation Security Subcommittee has scheduled an upcoming hearing on Thursday titled “TSA’s Efforts to Advance Risk-Based Security: Stakeholder Perspectives,” but the hearing will not include a representative of America’s flight attendants. This omission has upset the Coalition of Flight Attendant Unions.
The coalition is made up from the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, Association of Professional Flight Attendants, Transport Workers Union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Yahoo News reports that the Union, which represents 90,000 flight attendants, is now questioning the value of the hearing, which focuses on the perspectives of stakeholders.
It appears that this is not the first time the opinion of flight attendants has been ignored.
Earlier this year TSA administrator John Pistole announced that passengers would be able to carry small knives through airport security for the first time since the 9/11 attacks. Since the attacks, flight attendants have served as the final layer of security on board the craft during a flight, but despite the importance of their positions, Pistole did not inquire as to how the change would affect flight attendants or whether they would support the change.
Last month, Pistole admitted during a hearing that he “could have done a better job bringing [stakeholders] in earlier” to TSA’s decision-making process.
Last week the coalition sent a letter to Richard Hudson (R-North Carolina), the subcommittee chairman, asking for an opportunity to testify before the hearing’s witness panel regarding the importance of a flight attendants effort to ensure safety during a flight and what role they should play in creating a transportation security policy.
The coalition has also not stopped their effort to reverse Pistole’s decision about passengers carrying knives. Representatives Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Michael Grimm (R-New York) introduced a bill to the House, called the No Knives Act, and the coalition is working on a similar bill in the senate.
