Thousands of flight attendants have been attacked. Calvert injured his back when an intoxicated young man pushed him onto an aircraft seat back after he admonished the man for using a electronic device in the bathroom. Four men have been banned from flying on the airline because of their association with flight attendants.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants also have unions. The Protection From Abusive Passengers Act would create a federal no-fly list so that it wouldn't be exclusive to one airline.
TWU will increase its efforts in the near future. The website is called "Assault Won't Fly". A site for airline workers to report abuse is included on the website, as well as a chance to sign a petition for a flight attendant bill of rights.
There will be demonstrations at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport on June 14 and at Dallas Love Field on June 15.
The issue will be brought up at the convention. TWU has representation of bus drivers and subway workers as well as flight attendants, giving the president a unique perspective.
Samuelsen said that the reality of air travel is violent. Violence against transit workers and railway workers has been a reality for a long time.
In order to prevent the skies from turning into the public transit systems in Philadelphia and New York, we are looking to nip this in the bud nationwide. On Tuesday, a Brooklyn MTA bus driver was stabbed in the stomach by a passenger and slashed in the face by a man who forced his way onto the bus after the driver wouldn't open the door between stops. Three people, including the passenger and two male companions, are being searched by police.
Samuelsen said that transportation workers shouldn't be used as fodder. A federal mandate to ban abusive passengers is what we have a moment of time to do.
About 155,000 people are members of TWU. There are 23,000 flight attendants, of which 15,000 are at Southwest. There are 42,000 bus and subway workers in Local 100. TWU has representation in Philadelphia, Miami, Houston, Columbus and San Francisco.
He has worked in the airline industry for 11 years and was a flight attendant for eight of them. He encountered violence on a Newark-Fort Lauderdale flight. Four men were carrying bottles ofMichelob Ultra on the plane. The fire alarm went off in the rear of the plane.
After the passenger decided to return to his seat, Calvert approached him to see if he had been using a device. He pushed me over the seat back while I was talking to him. One of the passengers had his back on top of him. A passenger was arrested after the flight was diverted and had to pay thousands of dollars in fines. The passenger and his friends have been barred from the airline for life.
Doug McGraw, a spokesman for the airline, said that they have never condoned violence against their crew members. If a customer threatens or assaults our crew members, they will not be allowed to fly with us again and we work very closely with the authorities, including the FAA, to ensure that both criminal prosecution and civil penalties are pursued.
The TWU did not have a union at the time. I think the union is doing a great job of protecting our members.
Since the mask mandate was lifted, there has been a decrease in abuse against flight attendants. The Federal Aviation Administration has received 1,483 reports of unruly passengers so far this year, which includes 1.3 incidents for every 10,000 flights. The agency initiated almost 500 investigations. The FAA reported a record number of passenger incidents in 2011.
Aviation unions have been calling for a ban on passenger lists since the fall of 2021. The bill would make it a crime to intimidate, threaten or assault an aviation worker. A person on the list would not be allowed to board a plane.
The Protection from Abusive Passengers Act protects flight attendants and passenger service agents. In the FAA Reauthorization Bill, we are working with legislators to address inadequate staffing. The conditions in the cabin are not good.