Protect OUR future. Sign the petition now.
02-06-2014, 09:44 AM
#1
Gets Weekends Off
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Joined APC: Feb 2009
Position: right for a long, long time
Posts: 2,642
Protect OUR future. Sign the petition now.
#denyNAI | Tell Obama to deny Norwegian Air Shuttle's application to fly into the US
ALPA to U.S. Government: Reject Norwegian Air’s Evasive Scheme
Foreign Company Seeks to Exploit Legal and Regulatory Loopholes to Evade its National Laws and Gain Economic Advantage over U.S. Airlines
WASHINGTON–The Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) today called for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to immediately reject Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) foreign air carrier permit application because the company appears to be attempting to evade its national laws and regulations to compete unfairly against U.S. airlines and their employees. The call came in an answer that ALPA filed in response to NAI’s application.
“Norwegian Air International was clearly designed to attempt to dodge laws and regulations, starting a race to the bottom on labor and working conditions,” said Capt. Lee Moak, ALPA’s president. “If successful, the company would gain a serious and unfair economic advantage over U.S. airlines in the competition for the business of international passengers flying to and from the United States. This exploitation of the laws intended to prevent labor law shopping cannot be allowed to stand.”
While Norwegian citizens control NAI, which is a subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS), the company uses aircraft registered in Ireland and has applied for an air operator certificate from that country. It appears that its flight crews will work under individual employment contracts that are governed by Singapore law and that have wages and working conditions substantially inferior to those of NAS’s Norway-based pilots.
“If NAS is permitted to pick and choose the countries in which it establishes its subsidiaries and employs its flight crews, U.S. carriers will be put at a severe competitive disadvantage because the United States has one set of laws and regulations for all of its airlines,” said Capt. Moak. “The U.S.-EU air services agreement was never intended to allow this type of scheme, which games the system for competitive economic advantages.”
ALPA maintains that the NAI scheme raises the specter of the “flag of convenience” business practice that undermined the U.S. maritime industry by allowing a vessel to be registered in a country different from its ownership and apply the country of registry’s laws to its operations. The practice precipitated the decline of the industry and the loss of tens of thousands of U.S. maritime jobs as companies flew the flag of countries with the weakest labor and tax laws and regulations.
Moak noted a quote by the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department in an opinion piece published today by Aviation Daily: “We must reject business models premised on scouring the globe for cheap labor no matter the consequences, and not pretend this is somehow acceptable competitive behavior.”
“The NAI scheme must be immediately and unequivocally rejected,” said Moak. “The DOT must not permit U.S. airlines and their employees to face an unfair competitive disadvantage from this runaway shop and swiftly dismiss NAI’s air carrier permit application.”
Moak also called on the Irish government to reject NAI’s attempt to register the aircraft in Ireland. “Ireland should not allow itself to be complicit in NAI’s avoidance scheme,” he concluded.
Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world’s largest pilot union, representing nearly 50,000 pilots at 32 airlines in the United States and Canada. Visit the ALPA website at www.alpa.org.
#denyNAI | Tell Obama to deny Norwegian Air Shuttle's application to fly into the US
(APA and SWAPA are also in support of this effort, but I was unable to link their press releases here)
ALPA to U.S. Government: Reject Norwegian Air’s Evasive Scheme
Foreign Company Seeks to Exploit Legal and Regulatory Loopholes to Evade its National Laws and Gain Economic Advantage over U.S. Airlines
WASHINGTON–The Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) today called for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to immediately reject Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) foreign air carrier permit application because the company appears to be attempting to evade its national laws and regulations to compete unfairly against U.S. airlines and their employees. The call came in an answer that ALPA filed in response to NAI’s application.
“Norwegian Air International was clearly designed to attempt to dodge laws and regulations, starting a race to the bottom on labor and working conditions,” said Capt. Lee Moak, ALPA’s president. “If successful, the company would gain a serious and unfair economic advantage over U.S. airlines in the competition for the business of international passengers flying to and from the United States. This exploitation of the laws intended to prevent labor law shopping cannot be allowed to stand.”
While Norwegian citizens control NAI, which is a subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS), the company uses aircraft registered in Ireland and has applied for an air operator certificate from that country. It appears that its flight crews will work under individual employment contracts that are governed by Singapore law and that have wages and working conditions substantially inferior to those of NAS’s Norway-based pilots.
“If NAS is permitted to pick and choose the countries in which it establishes its subsidiaries and employs its flight crews, U.S. carriers will be put at a severe competitive disadvantage because the United States has one set of laws and regulations for all of its airlines,” said Capt. Moak. “The U.S.-EU air services agreement was never intended to allow this type of scheme, which games the system for competitive economic advantages.”
ALPA maintains that the NAI scheme raises the specter of the “flag of convenience” business practice that undermined the U.S. maritime industry by allowing a vessel to be registered in a country different from its ownership and apply the country of registry’s laws to its operations. The practice precipitated the decline of the industry and the loss of tens of thousands of U.S. maritime jobs as companies flew the flag of countries with the weakest labor and tax laws and regulations.
Moak noted a quote by the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department in an opinion piece published today by Aviation Daily: “We must reject business models premised on scouring the globe for cheap labor no matter the consequences, and not pretend this is somehow acceptable competitive behavior.”
“The NAI scheme must be immediately and unequivocally rejected,” said Moak. “The DOT must not permit U.S. airlines and their employees to face an unfair competitive disadvantage from this runaway shop and swiftly dismiss NAI’s air carrier permit application.”
Moak also called on the Irish government to reject NAI’s attempt to register the aircraft in Ireland. “Ireland should not allow itself to be complicit in NAI’s avoidance scheme,” he concluded.
Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world’s largest pilot union, representing nearly 50,000 pilots at 32 airlines in the United States and Canada. Visit the ALPA website at www.alpa.org.
#denyNAI | Tell Obama to deny Norwegian Air Shuttle's application to fly into the US
(APA and SWAPA are also in support of this effort, but I was unable to link their press releases here)
02-06-2014, 12:01 PM
#6
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jun 2007
Position: CA
Posts: 1,207
I signed. I'm not sure that it will do any good but at least my feelings are known. SWAPA said much the same thing. Here's the SWAPA link you couldn't find.
http://www.airlineinfo.com/ostpdf89/374.pdf
http://www.airlineinfo.com/ostpdf89/374.pdf
02-06-2014, 12:12 PM
#7
No longer cares
Joined APC: Mar 2008
Position: 767er Captain
Posts: 12,109
Originally Posted by Rolf
Mailed my congressman. He thinks it makes the US safer and therefore supports it. Sad.
02-06-2014, 12:22 PM
#8
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2008
Position: FO
Posts: 302
I signed. I don't think it's going to anything. This so called president has so many things going wrong. I really don't think he cares about this. Unless this will harm the majority of people that voted for him he will turn his back and then deny any responsibility if it hurts us or makes us less safe.
02-06-2014, 02:47 PM
#9
The Brown Dot +1
Joined APC: Jun 2009
Position: 777B
Posts: 7,775
Originally Posted by cmesoar
I signed. I don't think it's going to anything. This so called president has so many things going wrong. I really don't think he cares about this. Unless this will harm the majority of people that voted for him he will turn his back and then deny any responsibility if it hurts us or makes us less safe.
02-06-2014, 05:35 PM
#10
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Feb 2009
Position: right for a long, long time
Posts: 2,642
Originally Posted by tsquare
abu dhabi ring any bells?
Originally Posted by Rolf
Mailed my congressman. He thinks it makes the US safer and therefore supports it. Sad.
Originally Posted by tsquare
Yeah, so did Rubio. It will be interesting when the first security breach is traced back to there. I am sure they will fall all over themselves wondering what happened. Not to mention the colossal waste of taxpayer money.....
HR 3488 has 144 co-sponsors already 70+ D's and 60+ R's (since the spending bill passed, that's a lot of names fast in Congressional world).
Expect Senate companion bill soon and a Call to Action accompanying it.
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