Brothers & Sisters,
We are on th
e cusp of a historical fight that will pave the way for increased safety for years to come. As safety professionals and first responders we are tasked with handling emergencies and caring for thousands of passengers everyday. However, there has been study after study that shows Flight Attendants are impacted by fatigue on a regular basis, which negatively affects our ability to perform our safety functions in the case of an emergency. But nothing has been done. There are no FAA fatigue protections for Flight Attendants. None.
While we work the same or similar schedules as Pilots and do the majority of our work on our feet, we still don’t have any of the Pilot fatigue and rest protections. We are calling on Congress to include a Fatigue Risk Management Plan to help examine fatigue factors with real time evidence and information for Crew Members to help them avoid becoming fatigued, along with 10 hours rest for Flight Attendants in the next FAA Reauthorization Bill.
We have all seen news reports showing Flight Attendants saving the lives of hundreds of passengers on Air France in Toronto, US Airways on the Hudson, Asiana Airlines in San Francisco and British Airways in Las Vegas. Even aside from those extreme evacuations, all sorts of emergencies take place on a daily basis, whether it’s putting out a fire in the galley, administering CPR on a passenger or safely handling a decompression event. But we consistently see our fellow Cabin Crew Members rise to the occasion time after time to save lives. In any of these scenarios, Flight Attendant Fatigue could have had a fatal result and without FAA protections in place, it’s just a matter of time before it happens.
This isn’t going to be easy, we are up against airlines that are raking in record breaking profits and spending millions lobbying Congress against fatigue protection for Flight Attendants. This is a perfect example of corporate greed, putting profits ahead of passenger safety. But what we have that the airlines don’t, are thousands of voices. It’s time we stand up together and demand that our Congressional Representatives take this proven safety risk seriously.
<—Click here or go to http://www.congressweb.com/GOIAM/107 to let your Congressional leaders know you support 10 hours rest for Flight Attendants and a Fatigue Risk Management Plan in the FAA Reauthorization Bill.
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