Union Training Overlooked in Flight 1549 Miracle

In all the hubbub surrounding the landing of Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, there’s one consistent and serious omission in nearly all of the reporting: U.S. Airways pilot Chelsea Sullenberger is union-trained.

For all of the attacks unions have sustained over the years from the rabid right, the benefits unions have brought to ALL of us—the 40-hour work week, child labor laws, and now union training (among many, many others) too often go overlooked.

Despite all of the great advances we’ve acheived thanks to the labor movement, right-wing crazies like Rush Limbaugh and our “representatives,” both state and federal who so blindly follow him have been scape-goating organized wokers for years. 

It’s time we all recognize the good unions do for us—bring back a “labor” section in the paper already!—and cheer these heroes for what they are: union-trained heroes.