DALLAS (WBAP & KLIF News) — A couple of pilot unions, including one based in Dallas, are asking President Donald Trump to reverse a foreign carrier deal signed by former president Barack Obama.
The deal, according to a press release, was signed in Obama’s final days in office. It granted Norwegian Air International a foreign air carrier permit, which Southwest Airlines Pilots Association chairman Chip Hancock says undercuts American prices.
“If we can just get through the noise, this fits with President [Trump]’s mantra,” Hancock said of their appeal to reverse the decision. “It’s a travesty the foreign carrier permit was ever approved.”
He says Obama’s decision allows NAI, and soon other airlines, a loophole that allows them to establish an Irish subsidiary that could have a negative trickle-down effect in the U.S.
“They will be able to take advantage of essentially non-existent labor laws in Ireland to farm out their labor from wherever they want in the world,” Hancock says. “So if they want to for instance use a Singapore crew staffing company, that’s what they can do.”
Hancock says the trickle-down effect could eventually put tens of thousands of U.S aviation jobs at risk. He says they’ve reached out to the Trump administration, including Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, and launched a Twitter campaign to make their voices heard.
“The victory that we would see here is [getting] back to a level playing field we had before,” said NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots chairman Coley George. “What we’ll also be able to do is save generations going forward of good, middle-class American jobs going away.”
