California flight attendants are up in arms over a new FAA plan that could strip them of their state-mandated meal breaks, with unions blasting the move as “plainly unlawful.”
The Federal Aviation Administration wants to exempt pilots and flight attendants from state meal-break laws, arguing that federal airline rules override local requirements, InsideFlyer reported.
That could end a major protection for California-based crews, who are generally entitled to an uninterrupted 30-minute meal break when working more than five hours.
But three of the country’s largest flight attendant unions are fighting back, warning the FAA has no authority to simply declare those protections invalid.
“As for the FAA’s attempt to preempt a whole category of state law by simply declaring it so, such an action is plainly unlawful,” the unions charged in an open letter. “Courts, not agencies, determine when federal preemption applies.”
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, Association of Professional Flight Attendants and International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers represent crews at major carriers including Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines.
The fight over California’s meal breaks has already landed airlines in years of costly courtroom battles.
Alaska Airlines previously lost several cases over whether its California-based crews were entitled to the breaks and even tried to take the fight to the US Supreme Court, which declined to hear its appeal, according to Paddle Your Own Kanoo.
The FAA argues the patchwork of state requirements can significantly affect airline prices, routes and services, putting the laws at odds with the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978.
Its proposed rule would effectively block state meal break requirements for aircrews, but would not replace them with a federal requirement guaranteeing flight attendants time to eat during lengthy shifts.
Instead, the agency maintains its existing fatigue management rules are enough.
The unions aren’t buying it.
“By sowing a false sense of certainty that courts will not honor, the FAA will unleash chaos and uncertainty,” they warned.
They also shot down the idea that allowing flight attendants to take scheduled breaks could jeopardize passengers during an emergency.
“The suggestion that a flight attendant would not respond to an unruly or violent passenger or an on-board fire because of a scheduled rest break is completely unsupported by facts in the rulemaking record,” the unions said.
They noted the FAA had not identified any case in which a state-mandated break caused a crew member to mishandle an emergency.
The unions also accused the agency of failing to properly consult flight attendants about the conditions they face on the job before scrapping the state protections.
“Its attention appears to be more focused on relieving the airlines of liability than working with stakeholders on the very real problem of flight attendants’ working conditions and how those conditions may impact the safety of the flying public,” they wrote.
California’s rules have already proved powerful enough to force changes at the bargaining table.
The Association of Flight Attendants previously leveraged the state law to secure meal break protections in its collective bargaining agreement before supporting a carve-out from California’s requirements for aircrews.
