As transportation industry employees, flight attendants must submit to testing for drug usage when required. AFA unquestionably supports a drug-free workplace, especially in the transportation industry. However, AFA has concerns with the drug testing validity standards used by the Department of Transportation, which AFA believes are based on flawed testing procedures and inadequate scientific study.

The Department of Transportation addressed several of AFA's concerns about validity testing in the new rules unveiled in December 2000. However, AFA is still troubled by the lack of safeguards in the process of validity testing. AFA is concerned that the validity testing rules do not include provisions that allow for a higher level confirmation test of urine should the employee fail the initial validity test.

In addition, AFA believes the science behind these tests does not appear to take a number of important variables into consideration. Specifically, AFA is troubled that when tested, some valid urine samples - particularly those of relatively small women, vegetarians, or others with low muscle mass - could fail to meet the guidelines' validity criteria. Currently, any law abiding flight attendant could be wrongly accused of diluting or doctoring her or his urine sample.

AFA supports efforts to review the scientific basis for urine substitution cut-off levels that will take variables such as sex, diet and weight into consideration as well as a higher level confirmation test to verify a failed validity test. It is AFA's goal to adopt a drug testing procedure that not only provides for a drug-free work place but that also includes the highest degree of procedural protections for flight attendants and safeguards based on the most current and accurate scientific and medical evidence.

As an organization of air safety professionals, AFA strongly supports a drugfree
workplace. We urge our members to abide by the federal mandates as
well as the policies at their carriers in order to avoid discipline, termination
or being permanently barred from our profession.


Federal Regulations on Drug and Alcohol and Validity Testing

Introduction and Background

When federally mandated drug testing was first proposed in 1987, AFA –and all other AFL-CIO transportation unions – vigorously opposed it. We took our case to the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Congress and the court system, but later lost our court battle on the issue. In 1991, Congress passed the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act, which required drug and alcohol testing. As part of the legislation, organized labor won a critical employee protection against potential lab error: split samples of drug test specimens.