Two airline pilots unions, the Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association and the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots, will hold a rally Tuesday at the Ellipse at the White House to ask President Trump to undo one of President Obama’s last actions as president, allowing Norwegian Air International to fly to the U.S. The unions fought doggedly against giving that airline access and felt betrayed that Obama allowed it.
“I want to emphasize that this is a rally, not a protest,” said Coley George, industry affairs committee chairman for the NetJets union. “We’re just trying to cut through the noise and get this on (Trump’s) radar… This is something we think he can get behind.”
The rally reflects the complicated reality of Trump’s relations with the labor movement. While most unions strongly opposed his campaign, many are now finding they share substantial common ground with the new administration and have the opportunity to make progress on issues that were stalled for years. For many, their biggest problem now is simply getting Trump’s undivided attention.
“Trump met with the building trades unions (Monday). In eight years, Obama never met with the building trades as a group,” George said.
Several in the U.S. airline industry have opposed allowing Norwegian Air International to have a foreign carrier permit for the U.S., arguing the airline gets an unfair advantage because the permit allows it to work through an Irish subsidiary. That allows the airline to take advantage of the Emerald Isle’s lighter tax burden and lighter regulations. This violates a U.S.-European Union agreement on labor regulations, critics charge.
“The very charter of the Department of Transportation says that it will maintain a level playing field,” said Chip Hancock, chairman of government affairs for the Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association.
Many in Congress took the union’s side. Legislation introduced last Congress by Rep. Pete DeFazio, D-Ore., would have prohibited DOT from issuing the permit. It got 128 Democratic co-sponsors and 48 Republican ones, but never got a floor vote.
However, the administration said in April that it had no authority to withhold the permit. “[T]he provision in the U.S.-EU Agreement that addresses labor does not afford a basis for rejecting an applicant that is otherwise qualified to receive a permit.” It granted the permit in early December.
