The head of the nation's largest airline pilot union today told Congress that a proposal to loosen Department of Transportation rules on foreign control of U.S. airlines would violate federal law, usurp Congress' authority in setting such policies, and strike yet another blow against airline workers.
"DOT's proposed rule essentially rewrites the statutory rule on 'actual control' enacted by Congress," said Capt. Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l (ALPA). "Changes of this magnitude should be undertaken not by an administering agency but by the legislative branch."
Woerth was testifying at hearings by the House Aviation Subcommittee on a proposed DOT rule change that would radically reduce controls that prevent foreign owners from dictating a carrier's business practices and policies. In addition to raising a number of technical and economic policy concerns, Woerth stressed the effect that the rule change would have on airline workers.
"Pilots spend their entire careers accumulating the seniority required to gain access to (international) flying opportunities. In an era when the career expectations of pilots and other airline workers already have been repeatedly frustrated by airline bankruptcies, furloughs, wage concessions, pension plan terminations, and the like, it would be a crowning blow for the U.S. government now to adopt a policy that would tend to eliminate international flying by U.S. carriers," he said.
PR Newswire
"DOT's proposed rule essentially rewrites the statutory rule on 'actual control' enacted by Congress," said Capt. Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int'l (ALPA). "Changes of this magnitude should be undertaken not by an administering agency but by the legislative branch."
Woerth was testifying at hearings by the House Aviation Subcommittee on a proposed DOT rule change that would radically reduce controls that prevent foreign owners from dictating a carrier's business practices and policies. In addition to raising a number of technical and economic policy concerns, Woerth stressed the effect that the rule change would have on airline workers.
"Pilots spend their entire careers accumulating the seniority required to gain access to (international) flying opportunities. In an era when the career expectations of pilots and other airline workers already have been repeatedly frustrated by airline bankruptcies, furloughs, wage concessions, pension plan terminations, and the like, it would be a crowning blow for the U.S. government now to adopt a policy that would tend to eliminate international flying by U.S. carriers," he said.
PR Newswire
