Policy Statements

In November 2021, President Biden’s promise to enact historic infrastructure investment legislation became a reality when the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) became law. The $1.2 trillion bill was precisely the scale of investment that is long overdue in this country.

In addition to directing record levels of investment in infrastructure, the BIL also enshrined into law many of transportation labor’s key priorities, including strengthened worker protections that support high wages and safe jobs, and powerful domestic content requirements that now must be implemented.

Air traffic controllers keep our skies safe as they efficiently move thousands of aircraft every day throughout the National Airspace System (NAS). Their professional standards are rigorous: new hires undergo extensive training for at least 18 to 36 months depending on their facility assignment. Controllers worked throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and without their ongoing efforts, air travel could not have rebounded as quickly as we have seen in recent months.

Unfortunately, over the last decade, the total number of certified professional controllers (CPCs) and the total controller workforce (including those in training to be air traffic controllers) have not kept up with attrition. There are 1,000 fewer CPCs today than 10 years ago, and over 10 percent of the CPC workforce is eligible to retire. This has led to staffing shortages at certain facilities and some controllers working six days per week.

U.S. airlines are increasingly misusing visa programs to fill pilot positions by employing foreign nationals, displacing qualified prospective U.S. pilots, and undercutting U.S. pilot pay. Visa abuse began with regional carriers and has now spread to larger airlines, including Breeze, Frontier, and Southwest, among others. This is being done in defiance of the visa programs’ statutory authorities and attendant regulatory criteria.

In 2015, market pressures began to force U.S. regional airlines to increase pilot pay rates for the first time in a decade. Pilot pay at regional airlines had declined in real value for years and was insufficient in many cases to attract and retain pilots for those airlines. Rather than complying with the market wage, airlines began seeking certifications for pilot visas to employ pilots from outside the United States. Specifically, airlines sought to use H1-B visas to employ foreign nationals and E-3 visas to employ Australian nationals.

The Department of Transportation’s (DOT or Department) recent decision to remove a pro-labor clause from a joint venture agreement between Delta Air Lines and LATAM Airlines Group is an unprecedented decision that represents a step backward for U.S. airline employees in antitrust-immunized joint venture (ATI JV) cases. This decision continues decades of elevating consumer benefits over employee rights by the Department. The DOT’s decision is also completely inconsistent with the Biden Administration’s otherwise extraordinary record on labor matters, including the Administration’s stated policy objectives for workers potentially harmed by globalization. An appropriate remedy, at a minimum, requires the Department in future decisions to place conditions to ensure U.S. employees receive a fair share of flying covered by joint venture arrangements, affirmatively make use of its public interest objectives regarding employees in relevant licensing decisions, and rewrite of the Department’s outdated international policy statement.

The emerging offshore wind industry in the United States provides significant opportunities to expand the domestic workforce in the maritime and building trades sectors to create good-paying union jobs while increasing our nation’s clean energy supply chains. During President Biden’s first week in office, his Administration announced an Executive Order of a national goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, which would generate enough power for more than 10 million American homes annually and lower CO2 emissions to alleviate the climate crisis. While addressing this goal, Congress and the Administration must adopt policies that support long-term investments in a domestic workforce, including building, manufacturing, crewing, and maintaining offshore wind vessels that benefit American workers and keep the U.S. maritime industry thriving.

Employees in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Air Traffic Organization (ATO) are the backbone of the nation’s air traffic control system. The Technical Operations workforce maintains the critical navigation, communications, and radar equipment that controllers and pilots need. Even as the country went into lockdown in March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, airway transportation systems specialists in Technical Operations remained on the job along with thousands of their FAA colleagues. These employees are represented by the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO (PASS).

For years, fatigue has persisted as one of the single greatest threats to railroad safety. An inability to concentrate, decreased situational awareness, and reduced reaction times when tasked with the operation of freight trains — including those carrying explosive, radioactive, and flammable cargoes — can turn deadly with a moment’s notice. Despite this, Class I railroads have continued to pursue abusive and punitive attendance policies that push employees past their physical limits, forcing them to choose between their livelihoods and performing their jobs safely. Union Pacific’s recent adoption of a draconian attendance policy followed by BNSF’s adoption and deployment of its “Hi-Viz” policy are the most recent and egregious entries into this race to the bottom. BNSF’s Hi-Viz, and other policies like it are not compatible with safe railroad operations, and it is essential that their existence does not persist.

Since President Biden assumed office a little more than a year ago, the Biden administration has taken several actions to review and address current U.S. supply chain disruptions caused in large measure by a global pandemic and compounded by years of failure on the part of our government to develop and implement a realistic national maritime policy. As the federal government and the commercial maritime industries work to build a more resilient supply chain, TTD urges Congress and the administration to implement a national maritime strategy that includes, among other things, core policies that increase the size of our U.S.-flag fleet and the amount of America’s trade carried by U.S.-flag ships, enhance and strengthen U.S.-flag cargo preference laws, fully fund the maritime and tanker security programs, and categorically reject flag-of-convenience and open registry schemes.

Since the start of the pandemic, news reports, lawmakers, and employers have referred to a so-called “labor shortage” as the cause of disruptions to our economy. Such rhetoric predates the pandemic by years and has particularly been used by employers looking to undermine safety or labor standards by claiming a lack of available workers creates an emergency of one kind or another. The pandemic, along with the resulting supply chain challenges, has only increased the focus on and the frequency of those claims. The truth is that, across our economy, long-standing corporate practices have eroded the pay, benefits, health and safety protections, workplace conditions, and quality of life for millions of working Americans and created strong disincentives for workers to remain with their current employer. The real shortage policymakers should be concerned with is the shortage of quality jobs with good pay and benefits in many of our industries.

Aircraft dispatchers play an essential role in the safety of aviation operations. In tandem with pilots and air traffic controllers, dispatchers work to ensure that aircraft take off and land safely, navigating weather, traffic, and other challenges. For this reason, the parameters of their work and working environment are highly regulated, to ensure that a dispatcher is able to carry out their duties to the highest standard.