Unions for flight attendants, transport workers combine forces

{mosads}TWU President James Little said in a statement announcing the partnership that the two unions share “common values and principles that should intuitively benefit our members through working together.”

CWA President Larry Cohen added that unions working together is “the only way we will make progress for workers.”

The CWA and the TWU took different positions on the recently approved compromise on labor rules for transportation workers in the FAA bill.

TWU said in a statement days after lawmakers announced the deal that it could “live within” the rules of the compromise, which increases the percentage of a company’s workforce that has to agree to hold a union election from 35 percent to 50 percent.

By contrast, CWU ran a newspaper ad this week targeting the members of Congress who voted against the FAA bill, which it has called “anti-worker.”

“Is democracy a choice between jobs and workers’ rights?,” the CWA ad asks. “157 House and 15 Senate Democrats said ‘no.’ The rest of Congress made the wrong choice, and too many were silent.

The House and Senate have both approved
the FAA legislation, which provides nearly $16 billion per year to the FAA through fiscal year 2015. President Obama is expected to sign the measure before a Feb. 17 deadline.