The president of the transit union asked Congress to add unruly airplane passengers to the no-fly list.
John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union, told the House Homeland Security Committee on November 16 that if there was no no-fly list, people would continue to assault plane crews and gate agents.
The FAA has seen an increase in incidents related to unruly and dangerous behavior.
The FAA reported 5,240 incidents of unruly passengers as of November 16, with 3,798 of them related to face masks.
Samuelsen said the federal government needs to do more to protect transportation workers.
Adding unruly passengers to a "no-fly list" should be an option according to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
Buttigieg thinks that should be on the table. It's completely unacceptable to treat flight crews badly.
The FAA sent 37 "most egregious" cases of unruly airline passenger behavior to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. The FAA adopted a zero-tolerance policy earlier this year, but unions say fines and fees aren't enough to prevent unruly behavior.
Samuelsen said that the violence against transportation employees has gone beyond airlines and violent incidents that occur tens of thousands of feet in the air.
According to a press release from the TWU, frontline workers believe that physical assault in the performance of their duties is the number one security threat in the transport systems today.
"We are seeing a 'full moon atmosphere' across all our transport systems, where angry and frustrated passengers feel entitled to assault workers just because they are the face of the companies they work for," he said. There are many factors contributing to this atmosphere, and none of them have been created by the workers who are in harm's way.
Samuelsen said that understaffing has been one of the main reasons for passengers' unhappiness. A lack of staff can cause travel disruptions.
Samuelsen said that most assaults happen at "flashpoints" where employees are implementing rules.
Samuelsen said that passengers who are already angry or frustrated take that anger out on the workers. "Combating assaults on transport workers requires aholistic approach involving federal and local authorities, as well as transportation employers."
Samuelson said that the Transportation Security Administration already has processes in place for comparing passenger manifest to known security threats.
Samuelson said in his testimony that this approach would allow the air and rail carriers' reservation systems to prevent banned passengers from buying tickets.
