Policy

Few transportation safety issues have as far-reaching effects as the transport of hazardous materials and toxic chemicals. Strong laws and regulations surrounding the movement of these materials are essential to protecting not only workers but also the public and local communities who are risk when an accident occurs. Congress and the administration must address the […]

The U.S. aviation industry plays a central role in our national economy. Two million passengers fly on 70,000 flights every single day in America. The industry supports almost 12 million jobs and over $1.5 trillion in total economic activity, and accounts for 5.4 percent of our GDP. In other words, our aviation sector is a […]

Transportation labor has been a leader in insisting on sustainable investment in Amtrak’s national network. Throughout the history of Amtrak, whose creation in 1971 followed the bankruptcy of private passenger rail operations, the passenger railroad company has been chronically underfunded. Even worse, for four decades too many politicians have attempted to shutdown Amtrak through bankruptcy […]

Intercity bus transportation has grown rapidly in the last several years, offering Americans additional travel options as routes expand across the country. But this growth must not come at the expense of passenger and public safety, a fear that has become magnified by an influx of poorly regulated new entrants that have flooded the intercity […]

This important legislation funds and sustains a key component of our national transportation system, and we commend Chairman Shuster, Ranking Member DeFazio, Subcommittee Chairman Denham and Subcommittee Ranking Member Capuano for their leadership in crafting this bipartisan, compromise legislation. We also ask that you oppose any amendments that would compromise the integrity of the national passenger rail network, or that undermines the bipartisan compromise reached in this bill.

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to oppose an amendment filed by Senator John McCain to S.1, the Keystone XL Pipeline Act. This ideologically driven amendment, which seeks to repeal components of the Jones Act, would outsource American jobs; jeopardize our domestic shipping industry; undermine our nation’s economic, national and homeland security and has no place during a debate over energy policy.

TTD and our affiliates strongly oppose efforts to overturn the decades-old policy that prohibits passengers from using mobile wireless devices to make voice calls while in-flight. As thoroughly explained in our filings to proceedings promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Transportation (DOT), we believe the introduction of in-flight voice calls pose unnecessary safety issues and security risks to passengers and flight crews, including flight attendants and pilots.[2] Overturning this longstanding policy also creates another unnecessary distraction in an inherently disruptive cabin environment that could create adversarial interactions between passengers.

At the request of Amtrak and CAHSRA, FRA seeks to waive its Buy America standard in order to allow the final assembly of up to four HSR trainset prototypes to take place outside the U.S.  Given the limitations on the domestic production and testing of HSR trainset prototypes as identified in the notice, we will not oppose this narrow waiver to help expand HSR in the U.S. while simultaneously developing domestic production facilities.

On behalf of hundreds of thousands U.S. aviation workers, we ask that you include the House-passed Westmoreland-DeFazio amendment language in any year-end appropriations measure.  This provision, included in the FY 2015 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD), simply requires the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to ensure that the U.S.-EU Open Skies Agreement is implemented in full accordance with U.S. law and terms and conditions of the agreement.  An identical amendment was also introduced by Senators Klobuchar (D-MN), Blunt (R-MO), Schatz (D-HI) and Moran (R-KS) and other Senators prior to consideration of the Senate FY 2015 THUD bill.

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I write in response to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) notice of a new Information Collection Request (ICR), “The Impact of Driver Compensation on Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) Safety.” By way of background, TTD consists of 32 affiliate unions that represent workers in every mode of transportation, including those employed in the CMV industry. We therefore have a vested interested in this proceeding.[1] We also endorse the comments filed by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU).