BEFORE THE 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

WASHINGTON, DC 

Application of 

NORWEGIAN AIR INTERNATIONAL 

LIMITED 

Docket No. OST-2013-0204 

for an exemption imder 49 U.S.C. § 40109 

and a foreign air carrier permit pursuant to 

49 U.S.C. § 41301 (US-EU Open Skies) 

ANSWER OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR AND CONGRESS OF 

INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS, AND THE TRANSPORTATION TRADES 

DEPARTMENT, AFL-CIO TO DOT NOTICE OF MOTION 

On behalf of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial 

Organizations (AFL-CIO), and the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, we 

write in response to the written summary of the January 8, 2014 U.S.-EU Joint 

Committee meeting as it pertained to the current and plaimed long haul operations of 

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (NAS) and its affiliated companies, Norwegian Long Haul 

AS (NLH) and Norwegian Air International Limited (NAI). 

The AFL-CIO and TTD support the comments filed by the Air Line Pilots Association 

(ALPA), and we refer you to the analysis and response to each point made by the 

European delegation detailed in ALPA's filing. As those comments discuss, the DOT 

Summary states that during a closed-door session of the Joint Committee Meeting, the 

European delegation gave the Joint Committee what the Summary characterized as 

"some detailed factual information." We do not believe that this characterization 

accurately reflects the nature of the information provided by the European delegation, 

as the information is in most cases not detailed or not factual, or both. Much of the 

justification being provided for NAS/NLH/NAI business model, including their 

decision to seek an Air Operators Certificate in Ireland rather than Norway, has only 
been recently presented. Furthermore, as detailed in the ALPA filing, the economic 

claims for basing long haul operations out of Ireland seem to be insubstantial. Rather, 

we believe that these claims are merely part of a publicity campaign designed to 

distract the general public and federal regulators from their true goal and purpose: to 

avoid Norway's labor and other social laws, evade their existing collective bargaining 

agreements, and to undercut existing U.S. and European airlines and their workers. 

Perhaps the most troubling thing about the written summary is what is what the EU 

delegation did not mention. The EU-U.S. Air Transport Agreement (ATA) includes, for 

the first time ever, a labor article designed prevent an agreement from having adverse 

effects on aviation workers. This provision. Article 17 bis ("Social Dimension"), states 

that "the opportunities created by the Agreement are not intended to undermine labour 

standards or the labour-related rights and principles contained in the Parties' respective 

laws." It further states that "the principles in paragraph 1 shall guide the Parties as they 

implement the Agreement." 

The inclusion of Article 17 bis in the ATA represented important progress in our global 

effort to ensure that market-opening trade initiatives are not used to harm good jobs 

and undermine labor standards, and was praised by both U.S. and European 

negotiators. On March 25, 2010 Siim Kallas, the European Commission Vice President 

Responsible for Transport released a statement proclaiming that "For the first time in 

aviation history, the agreement includes a dedicated article on the social dimension of 

EU-US aviation relations. This wil l not only ensure that the existing legal rights of 

airline employees are preserved, but that the implementation of the agreement 

contributes to high labour standards."' 

Despite such a strong statement supporting high labors standards and worker 

protections, the European delegation appears to be walking away from commitments 

they agreed to in Article 17 bis. At no point in the written summary of the European 

delegation's presentation was Article 17 bis mentioned or referenced. Nor does it 

appear that the European delegation has factored this article into its determination that 

the U.S. DOT should grant NA I a foreign air carrier permit. 

' European Commission, Office of the Vice President for Transport. Breakthrough in EU-US secondstage Open Skies negotiations: Vice-President Kallas welcomes draft agreement. Retrieved from: 

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-10-371_en.htm?locale=en 
As TTD detailed in its previous filing, NATs intentions leave little in doubt. Its business 

model was developed explicitly to evade its collective bargaining obligations in its 

home country and Norwegian labor laws, and it is doing so using opportunities 

provided by the ATA. By basing its crews in Thailand and employing them on 

individual contracts governed by the laws of Singapore, NA I is clearly undermining 

labor standards on both sides of the Atlantic. 

The negotiators of the ATA recognized that the fact that each European signatory to the 

ATA has its own national labor law might entice airlines to "shop around for a better 

deal." Article 17 bis was included to precisely to prevent this practice. Yet now, when 

N A I is attempting to do precisely that, the European delegation appears to be 

abandoning the principles that guided their negotiations, and walking away from their 

commitments under the agreement. 

Should NATs business plans be allowed to move forward, we believe that it will set a 

devastating precedent that wil l have far reaching implications for the global aviation 

industry, U.S. and European airlines and airline employees. NATs application is a 

critical test case for how the U.S.-EU air services agreement wil l be implemented, and 

whether the Article 17 bis labor protections will be enforced as intended. 

We believe that the case presented by the European delegation as detailed in the written 

summary is fundamentally flawed and ignores a crucial article in the ATA. It also 

ignored many serious questions that TTD and other organizations have posed in 

regards to the NA I business model. DOT should make clear that it wil l not ignore the 

A TA labor article, and seek further information from the European delegation and NAI 

about how they wil l address the serious labor concerns that we have presented. 

We appreciate your consideration of our views. 

President, AFL-CIO President, TTD