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."
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