Letters To Congress

Dear Representative: On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, I urge you to support H.R. 2474, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and oppose any efforts to weaken the bill through an amendment or a motion to recommit. This important and bipartisan legislation provides American workers the necessary protections to join together to collectively bargain for fair pay, better benefits, and safe working conditions without fear or intimidation.

Dear Representative: On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to vote in favor of H.R.2382, the USPS Fairness Act. This critical bipartisan legislation would repeal the destructive and unprecedented 2006 retiree health benefits prefunding mandate imposed on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to vote YES on H.R. 1140, the Rights for Transportation Security Officers Act when it is considered by the House Homeland Security Committee during tomorrow’s mark-up. This bipartisan legislation will provide 45,000 Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) with the same worker rights that cover other federal employees and have done so without interfering in the delivery of important government services.

Dear Representative: On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to cosponsor H.R. 5351, introduced by Representatives Brian Higgins (D-NY) and Mike Kelly (R-PA) that would facilitate the use of domestic waterborne transportation and create good jobs in the maritime, longshore and shipbuilding sectors. Specifically, this bill would end the unfair and unnecessary double taxation imposed on cargo that arrives via ocean vessels and then uses domestic ships or barges for delivery to another U.S. port or harbor.

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to cosponsor H.R. 5170, The Safe Skies Act, recently introduced by Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-CA), John Katko (R-NY), Matt Cartwright (D-PA), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA). H.R. 5170 would close a dangerous aviation safety loophole by mandating that pilots that fly all-cargo aircraft are covered by the same flight duty and rest requirements that currently apply to commercial passenger pilots.

Dear Mr. Wiedefeld and Mr. Smedberg: On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to take immediate steps to ensure that drivers and other workers currently employed at the Cinder Bed Road Metrobus facility and at Fairfax Connector receive a fair and just contract with comparable pay and benefits to those enjoyed by WMATA employees.

On behalf of the Transportation Trade Department, AFL-CIO, I urge you to support H.R. 5119, the Safe Aircraft Maintenance Standards Act, when the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee considers it during tomorrow’s markup. This important, bipartisan legislation will help ensure one level of safety and security for all maintenance performed on U.S. aircraft, whether at home or abroad.

As policymakers and stakeholders continue to negotiate the terms of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), we, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division (SMART-TD), and the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), write to bring your attention to a thus unresolved issue concerning freight rail service between the United States and Mexico and the disparate treatment of rail workers under current law. [1]

Dear Chairman Inhofe, Ranking Member Reed, Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Thornberry: On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I express my strenuous opposition to language being considered for inclusion in the FY ‘20 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that strips collective bargaining rights from U.S. mariners serving on United States-flag vessels participating in the Maritime Security Program (MSP) operating under an Emergency Preparedness Agreement. As drafted, the proposal would allow an MSP carrier, receiving taxpayer funded stipends, to unilaterally abandon its bargained obligations as it relates to crewing MSP vessels and would allow the Department of Transportation (DOT) to prohibit a labor organization from representing these mariners if the agency decides the union is not adequately acquiescing to the carrier’s demands.

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge you to support the Full Utilization of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act (H.R. 2440) when it is considered under suspension on Monday, October 28th. This bipartisan legislation has been introduced by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO), Subcommittee Chair Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Subcommittee Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA). TTD has previously endorsed H.R. 2440, and we strongly support its passage by the full House.