The leader of a flight attendants union pleaded for the Federal Aviation Administration to mandate face masks aboard flights and in airports, saying that otherwise, crew members risk conflicts with passengers who refuse to cooperate.
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-Communications Workers of America, testified before Congress on Thursday and said that major U.S. airlines’ requirements that passengers wear masks are not being followed, and without federal law behind the private sector policy, airline employees are helpless to enforce them.
“Flight attendants are left to manage a hodgepodge of airline policies on the front lines,” Nelson, a 24-year flight attendant, told the House homeland security subcommittee on transportation and maritime security. “Most travelers comply with the requirement, but conflict still flares up as some have been led to believe masks are a political statement, rather than a public health necessity.”
Nelson’s union, a 50,000-member organization that is part of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, has contacted the Department of Transportation several times since March to request that the FAA regulate face masks on-board planes as it does smoking and the use of seat belts.
The flight attendants union asked DOT and the Department of Health and Human Services on June 1 to promulgate an emergency rule to mandate that all cabin occupants wear a mask except when consuming food or drinks; that airlines provide flight attendants N-95 masks, gloves, and other personal protection equipment; and that the government implement health monitoring and screening checks for passengers and crew members, a move seen by some as imposing on privacy. The union also wants social distancing standards to be created within aircraft, as well as stronger requirements for cleaning standards after each flight and for ventilation patterns.
Hundreds of flight attendants have tested positive for the coronavirus, and 10 have died. Approximately 1,000 U.S. flight attendants have lost their jobs permanently as a result of the pandemic and its impact on the airline industry.
