Sat, Mar 06, 2010
Flight Attendant Injury Rates Reportedly Exceed Workers In
Coal, Construction
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) Thursday
participated in "OSHA Listens," an event sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) aimed at soliciting comments on key issues facing the
agency. AFA-CWA said that for over 35 years, the FAA has claimed
exclusive jurisdiction over the safety and health of crew members
on civil aircraft, yet has failed to extend basic OSHA protections
to flight attendants.
AFA-CWA representatives told OSHA that, for a flight attendant,
each day on the job brings potential exposures to turbulence,
severe air pressure changes, unwieldy service carts, broken luggage
bins, balky exit doors and door handles, exposures to toxic
chemicals, unruly passengers, communicable diseases, and emergency
evacuations. As a result, safety and health violations occur on a
daily basis for flight attendants.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), flight
attendants, as well as other employees in the scheduled passenger
air transportation industry, suffer occupational injuries and
illnesses at rates far in excess of those experienced by workers in
nearly all other sectors of private industry. For example, in 2008,
aviation employees suffered 9.6 recordable injury and illness cases
per 100 workers. In comparison, employees in the coal mining
industry experienced recordable injuries and illnesses at a rate of
4.4 cases per 100 workers and framing contractors in the
construction industry reported 6.9 cases per 100 workers.
"The lack of OSHA protections has real consequences for flight
attendants and it is time that these basic protections that are
extended to almost every other worker in the United States be
applied to flight attendants as well," said Patricia Friend
(pictured, above), AFA-CWA International President. "Our goal is to
work with the FAA and OSHA in order to ensure that once and for
all, strong and comprehensive regulations are enacted to protect
the workplace safety and health of flight attendants."
More News
Instrument Approach Procedure (IAP) Charts Portray the aeronautical data which is required to execute an instrument approach to an airport. These charts depict the procedures, incl>[...]
“Our industry is approaching a 30-year innovation cycle, and we have less than 25 years to decarbonize aviation. We need to develop new methods to get net zero aerospace tech>[...]
Also: Girls in Aviation Day, B-29 Doc Heads 4 Chino, C-17 Tail Cone Detaches, Bulgaria Airshow Accident One of two private aircraft that launched from Apatity Airport near Murmansk>[...]
From 2021 (YouTube Version): We Were Blown Away At How Well The Nosewheel Was Adapted To The X Cub Airframe It should not be a secret to any one of you, that with thousands of hour>[...]
Also: Volato Nixed by Honda, New B-21 Bases, A-10 Unit Inactivated, Gogo/Airshare Boom Supersonic announced its demonstrator aircraft XB-1 successfully completed its third test fli>[...]