Sara Nelson aligning herself with Donald Trump to save Spirit Airlines tells us something: when labor jobs are on the line, all political bets are off.
Sara Nelson Is Now “Praying” For Trump To Save Spirit Airlines
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants and often called world’s most powerful flight attendant, is nothing if not consistent.
Not ideologically consistent across party lines in the USA, but consistent in embracing a Marxist view of capital and labor.
That is why her latest statement on Spirit Airlines is so fascinating. Nelson is now urging the Trump administration to throw Spirit a lifeline, even as the proposed bailout raises serious legal and policy questions.
Gary Leff at View From The Wing flags her statement:
Only after getting improvements and protections in black and white, our union cheered the JetBlue/Spirit merger because the airlines knew they had to work with labor under the previous administration. It would have improved competition, increased safety, benefitted consumers, and allowed labor to negotiate to the highest standards. We also knew it would only consolidate power among the largest airlines if it didn’t succeed. We weren’t wrong.
Now, thousands of Flight Attendants and other frontline workers have their lives, paychecks, healthcare, homes, and retirement hanging in the balance. Let’s remember real people are hoping and praying for a lifeline. And no doubt they deserve it! But if nothing else, they especially deserve consideration and kindness.
That is quite a statement…and a striking sense of entitlement (“they deserve it”).
Labor First, No Matter Who Is In Power
Nelson is not wrong that real people are caught in the middle here. Spirit employs thousands of flight attendants and other frontline workers. Those people did not design Spirit’s balance sheet. They did not block the JetBlue merger. They did not double jet fuel prices. They simply show up to work and now face the prospect that their airline may not survive.
So yes, I understand why a union leader would fight hard to preserve those jobs.
But this is also a reminder of how transactional politics can be. Nelson is now effectively looking to Donald Trump, a politician she has opposed on just about everything, to save Spirit Airlines.
As remarkable as that is, it is also entirely consistent.
Nelson has always been laser-focused on saving jobs. If that means supporting the JetBlue-Spirit merger because it came with labor protections, she supports it. If that means criticizing the Biden administration for blocking it, she does that too. And if that means appealing to Trump for a bailout, then suddenly Trump becomes the figure workers are “hoping and praying” will deliver a lifeline.
In the oddest of ways, that is consistency.
And in that sense, she and Scott Kirby are more alike than either would probably care to admit. Kirby flatters Trump when it serves United’s interests. Nelson appeals to Trump when it serves labor’s interests. Different constituencies, same instinct…
This Is A Very Different Kind Of Bailout
But let’s also be clear about what is being asked here.
This is not a broad-based rescue like we saw during the pandemic, nor is this is not a neutral policy applied across the industry. There has been no national tragedy or disaster beyond the administration itself.
This would be a targeted bailout of a single airline that has already filed for bankruptcy twice in a short period, potentially without clear congressional authorization, and with taxpayers on the hook.
That is a very different proposition that should make people uncomfortable, regardless of whether they sympathize with Spirit employees (I certainly do).
CONCLUSION
Sara Nelson “praying” for Trump to save Spirit Airlines is a crystallizing moment that reveals how Washington really works (and why I left Washington, DC…).
Principles are flexible. Alliances are temporary. For labor leaders, working with the devil is not beyond the realm of possibility if he will save jobs.
Nelson wants Spirit workers protected and she is willing to align herself with Trump to get there. I understand the motivation, but that does not make a taxpayer-funded bailout of Spirit any less troubling.
Quite the contrary, the fact that Nelson is running to Trump to beg him for an illegal government acquisition we used to call fascism just speaks volumes about the current state of politics in the USA.
This entire “saving jobs” claim is a bit of a canard.
As long as there is demand for air travel, there will be jobs at airlines. Maybe not Spirit, but certainly whatever airline fills Spirit’s void. some particular routes might not be backfilled, but as long as there is demand for X million passenger miles, someone – perhaps Breeze, Avelo, Allegiant, or Frontier may fill any void, creating new jobs as a result.
Yes, there would be some disruption, but losing Spirit should not lead to the aviation market’s pie shrinking. With that in mind, the “loss” of Spirit jobs should not drive policy.
It’s more so that the ‘saving jobs’ bit is cover for what this really is… bailing out insider investors who are losing. With Trump, it’s always a grift. New Yorkers have known this since at least the 1980s…
@jfhscott Exactly, pilots and mechanics becoming unemployed? Nope. I’d guess Spirit FAs would have a path to FA jobs with other airlines. GAs? Not the best reputation at Spirit, but sure, some.
Most Spirit GA’s if not all are contractors, not Spirit’s employees…for good reason