Meet America's Most Powerful Flight Attendant
Sara Nelson, the International President of the Association of Flight Attendants, speaks during a press conference on aviation safety during the 2019 government shutdown. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES hide caption
Sara Nelson, the International President of the Association of Flight Attendants, speaks during a press conference on aviation safety during the 2019 government shutdown.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGESBack in January, President Trump stood at a podium in the White House Rose Garden. He announced a deal to reopen the federal government after nearly a month-long shutdown.
Hours earlier, a handful of air traffic controllers didn't show up to work, effectively grounding flights on the East Coast. By many accounts, that led Congress and the president to reach an agreement and end America's longest government shutdown.
But the air traffic controllers had help: a vocal partner who demonstrated at airports, took to social media and spoke on cable news to warn of how the shutdown would affect airline workers.
Sara Nelson's defense of her fellow union workers led The New York Times to call her "America's most powerful flight attendant."
As many of us prepare to fly for the holidays, how is the airline industry doing? And how has the industry changed in recent decades?
To answer these questions, we spoke to Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants — a union that represents 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines.
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