TTD in the news

As Reported by Lena H. Sun, Michael Laris and Lori Aratani for The Washington Post
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday strongly recommended in newly issued guidelines that all passengers and workers on planes, trains, buses and other public transportation wear masks to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. The guidance was issued following pressure from the airline industry and amid surging cases of the coronavirus and strong evidence on the effectiveness of masks in curbing transmission, according to CDC officials. The recommendations fall short of what transportation industry leaders and unions had sought, and come long after evidence in favor of mask-wearing was well established.

As reported by Sheila Kaplan  for the New York Times: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drafted a sweeping order last month requiring all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transportation in the United States, but it was blocked by the White House, according to two federal health officials.

As Reported by Ted Reed for Forbes
That reluctance is unsurprising, said John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union, which represents 150,000 transport workers including about 65,000 employed in the airline industry. On Oct. 9, the U.S. Department of Transportation rejected a petition from the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO to require masks for passengers on commercial passenger transportation. The federal agencies “won’t step up,” Samuelsen said Wednesday. “They won’t create an across the board mandate on anything related to Covid-19 related safety measures or worker protection.”

As Reported By Lori Aratani and Michael Laris For the Washington Post
Advocates of federal aid to keep 33,000 airline employees on the job lobbied for months, sending thousands of letters and donning protective masks to walk the halls of Congress. And it appeared to be working, garnering bipartisan backing and support from President Trump, who just last month said: “We’ll be helping the airlines.”

As Reported By Kea Wilson For Streetsblog USA
The Trump administration rejected a plea to require masks on public transit nationwide on Friday — and then immediately kicked the mostly urban-based industry when it was down by halting negotiations on a relief deal that would have provided agencies with the windfall they need to survive.

Reported By Erik Bascome for SiLive.Com
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has rejected pleas from transit workers to require masks on all forms of public transportation.
On Friday, the DOT sent a letter to the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO labor federation rejecting the union’s request from earlier this year to implement a mask mandate on all DOT-approved, commercial public transportation.

As reported by USA Today

As reported by Andy Kroll for Rolling Stone: WASHINGTON — In a little-noticed ruling on Friday evening, the Trump administration rejected a petition by a coalition of labor unions that had asked the federal government to require passengers to wear masks on airplanes, trains, and other major forms of transportation.

As reported by Michael Laris and Lori Aratani for The Washington Post: The chairman of the Senate committee that oversees airlines and U.S. transportation policy had his mask off for extended periods on a Delta flight to Mississippi on Thursday night, according to another passenger, and the company said he had to be reminded twice by a flight attendant to follow the airline’s mask requirement.

As reported by Alexandra Kelly for The Hill: The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) rejected a petition from a labor union Friday that would issue a departmentwide mandate requiring all passengers on DOT-approved transportation to wear masks, underscoring the lack of universal health protocols deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic by the federal government.