Sara Nelson, the powerful president of the Association of Flight Attendants, has told Congress that passengers need to be coercively conditioned to wear masks, similar to how airlines eliminated smoking onboard.
Flight Attendant Union: Keep The Mask Mandate
The federal mask mandate expires on May 11, 2021 and both Congress and the Biden Administration are weighing whether to extend it. In written testimony to Congress, Nelson said:
“I do think it’s important that we recognize that and stay the course here with the mask policies, with all of our diligence (and) with the efforts to get the vaccine out to everyone.”
She elaborated that coercion works and coercion should be used to make airline passengers supple:
“We know from experience that the flying public is ready to adapt to new behaviors when instructions are clear and rules are enforced. Passengers learned to stop smoking, pack minimal fluids in their carry-ons, and turn off their cell phones for engine start and climb. They can readily adjust to wearing a mask if federal agencies clearly and repeatedly define both the expectation and the penalties for non-compliance.”
If she’s linking masks to smoking bans, that strongly suggests she wants to make mask mandates permanent unless the federal smoking ban on airplanes is also up for expiration.
CONCLUSION
I’m not opposed to masks onboard and have enjoyed one upside: no coughs, sore throats, or runny noses this season. There’s a reason masks have been worn for decades on airplanes in Asia. But the idea that masks should be compelled permanently and that the key to do that is through federal coercion and harsh penalties (rather than persuasion) strikes me as the sort of overkill that will make the anti-maskers more likely to rebel. The end result: less compliance and more drama onboard.
image: Delta Air Lines
Union thug pushing for “coercion.” Same thug pushing for DL FA unionization IIRC. Pay this hypocrite no mind.
It would have to be federally mandated to be effective. Otherwise you could have one or two rogue mask-less airlines advertising “Masks don’t fly with us” and the others would probably fall like dominoes. Then right back where we started.
I’m really looking forward to the day that these extremists on both sides no longer have voices. Not everything is black and white.
I expect we will be wearing masks for quite some time. That part will happen without much push back for now. But no way it will stick over the long term without complete chaos breaking out in the air. Once the cases are down to barely perceptible (a year or two?) most will not want to do it and just flat out refuse, causing a lot more of, as you called it, drama in the air.
However, I agree with you Matthew in that I will continue to wear them on planes. I’ve really enjoyed not having a single cold this year. Maybe not in F or C if the cabin is not full. But definitely every other time.
This mask mandate thing will last at least 5 more years, minimum Once this crap gets enacted it’s virtually impossible to retract.
I could see wearing a mask in a busy coach flight during cold/flu season on my way to a trip I don’t want to be damped by being sick. I especially could see carrying some in my bag all the time in case a passenger nearby is coughing and hacking the whole flight. In first class sitting next to my wife? No. In a business class suite? No. But a national mandate forever, especially that results in more FA power trips and airline ban incidents? Absolutely not.
Lol if you think persuasion alone works
Never said that. But long-term, that must be the solution on masks.
“when she met with AOC earlier this year, the two did not wear masks…”
This meeting actually occurred in February 2019, which you could have figured out if you took a minute to research it. Were you wearing a mask back then?
And she just decided to post about it two years later? Goodness, her trip reports are more delayed than mine!
Masks for thee
But not for me
For my photo opp
With AOC
Chivas says this meeting took place two years ago. If that’s the case, I stand corrected. But Nelson just posted about it in 02/21 with no indication the meeting took place in 2019…
I’ll wear a mask permanently if Ms. Nelson and her colleagues promise to always provide a PDB and respond to politeness with politeness.
AOC is an absolute legend when it comes to mask compliance. She probably wears her mask to bed at night. If you look at the tweet Nelson was replying to, it might make more sense: “TWO YEARS AGO: @AOC swung by the @afa_cwa office after the government shutdown.”
China knew about COVID two years ago. Sure she did too. Or she should have…
“Passengers learned to ,,, turn off their cell phones for engine start and climb.” Really?
If ~40-45% of Republicans keep refusing to get a vaccine, we will be wearing these masks for quite a while. Because freedums.
So we would have to wear masks even if we’re perfectly healthy? Even if we have some bug but are completely asymptomatic science tells us it’s extremely rare to pass on the bug. Something we were all perfectly fine with for the history of the world until 2020 when suddenly we can no longer interact with our fellow humans without wearing a mask. The continual, utter insanity and sheer dumbness is so depressing to behold.
Hers was a reply to a tweet that explicitly called out that the meeting had been two years ago. Honestly, it took me maybe 30 seconds to find that even before reading any comments here. Rather disappointing reporting on your part.
I stand corrected, but it doesn’t change at all the main point of the article.
Matthew, did you change to BoardingArea?
What do you mean? I did in 2016.
“I’m not opposed to masks onboard and have enjoyed one upside: no coughs, sore throats, or runny noses this season.”
You could just as easily say this is due to more rigorous hand washing and sanitizing practices, as well as people self-policing better and staying home when feeling sick instead of going to work or school or traveling. (I can tell you, as a chronic allergy/sinus sufferer, I’ve never had a worse year than the last since I’ve had to wear face coverings. My congestion blows up anytime I have one on long enough to where it gets damp. Take that data point for what you want.) But you can bet your breeches your statement will be used by the CDC to justify pushing permanent mask mandates every cold and flu season from here on out.
I’m not for mask mandates once everyone has had a chance to be vaccinated. Indeed, better hygiene also helps to explain the lack of colds. Sorry these masks contribute to your congestion.
Weekend reading. Social distancing is the biggest BS ever.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/23/mit-researchers-say-youre-no-safer-from-covid-indoors-at-6-feet-or-60-feet-in-new-study.html
Sara Nelson is a moron, an embarrassment and the enemy of all decent United flight attendants. I strongly resent that I’m forced by law to allow her to extort money from my paycheck each month.
Masks in Asia? Have only ever been worn when the wearer is ill, most commonly with a cold ( except briefly during SARS when it became widespread). It has always been reassuring to see it, but how efficacious is unclear. Certainly it needs to be put in the context of generally poor personal hygiene ( excluding Japan), as there is little compliance with the accepted practice in the west of hand washing after using the lavatory, and other failings. In countries such as Thailand, where nose-picking is an obsession, indeed almost a national sport, the use of masks is less effective than it could be.
I’d be very pleased if masks became mandatory on planes, permanently, as well as all other indoor public spaces.
I foresee mask mandates being in place for the next 2 years. After that relaxations will kick in. My reasoning is :
1. Covid vaccination rates are not equal, leading to different countries getting vacinnated at different times
2. The more the virus circulates, higher the chance of mutations which at some point could end up evading or drastically reducing the efficacy of vaccines
3. Localised flareups will still occur in vaccinated countries due to the pro disease “vaccines are dangerous hur de hur” crowd.
4. Kids vaccination is something I foresee starrting by the end of this year once all the testing and research is complete. Till all kids are vaccinated, and the fact that the newer mitations are attacking kids as well (we have had 10 kids get infected in the second wave in my apartment complex.
To add, while I may choose or not to wear a mask on a flight, I dont see the need for mandates in the long term
We need new countries. There is plenty of land. Continued forced cohabitation on the same living space is torture. There are 100 million white American conservatives who would be happier not enslaved under a leftist regime and system. Let leftists torture themselves with this ridiculousness and prohibitions on freedom if they choose. Don’t push it on us. I wish conservatives had actual leaders who mobilized instead of continuing to respect an evil corrupt system of enslavement where 51% can enslave 49%.
Hypothetically it would be quite easy to make the mask mandates unenforceable. Pick a date in the future, let’s say July 4th. Spread it in the media and in every forum that on that day those who choose not to wear a mask will stop.
Airlines won’t ban 50% of the population, and they won’t divert if half the plane refuses to comply after take off. Especially if it occurs on every flight.
Grocery stores, malls, offices, same deal. Law enforcement won’t involve themselves.
Ever drive on 90/94 (Bishop Ford) in Chicago? Speed limit is 55 but in reality everyone drives 80 when not limited by traffic. Nobody gets a ticket because you can’t stop everyone. Same concept. Laws, mandates, etc are all based on consent and compliance. Once ignored by enough people they become meaningless.
Not necessarily advocating this approach. We are divided enough already over this stupid issue. But it would effectively end the mandate.
JM, sorry to hear your $50 union dues per month is making you go bankrupt, ha ha. Sara is not the problem, you are. Hey Delta is non-union, why don’t you get hired by them……save you $600 a year!
And paid a lot more…
Again Sara the union prez liberal.(who makes $172,000 a year plus benefits).. wanting to torture all for masks forever …
Vaccinated passengers in the front of the plane, non-vaccinated in the back
Yea right
Now FAs on at least one airline are reportedly becoming the mask Gestapo, requiring passengers to mask *between* bites of food or sips of beverages at meal/snacktime! This is getting beyond out of hand. If this is where we are headed as a society, then I am tempted to throw in the towel and say just bring on that EMP blast in the atmosphere and let the strongest survive afterwards. At least the Mask Gestapo FAs will be among the first to go.
Guess this means I won’t be flying much. Flying sucks enough without masks.
MASK DONT WORK. It’s been proven. So why force people to wear them when they choose not to. I don’t understand this. If you want to wear a mask go ahead if you don’t then don’t. People don’t get that we live in America and taking our freedoms away has to start somewhere and yes mandates such as people being required to wear a mask is a start. Wake up people we are on a dangerous Slippery slop and need to pull back or we will be the next communist country.
The Travel Mask Mandate Will Be Permanent. That’s What Dr. Faucci , The CDC Director, And This Administration Want. I Don’t See This Ending Until Biden Is Out Of Office.