Sara Nelson has managed to become the voice of the U.S. labor movement, which seemingly is having a resurgence. She is among the best-known labor leaders of the 21st century, and she is among the few who are not white men.
Let’s just say upfront that the selection of Sara Nelson to be the Democratic nominee for vice president is a long shot.
At the same time, Nelson is not a good person to underestimate. Since 2014, she has been the president of a relatively small labor union, the Association of Flight Attendants, which has just 50,000 members but has punched above its weight for at least three decades.
In fact, Nelson has managed to become the voice of the U. S. labor movement, which seemingly is having a resurgence. She is among the best-known labor leaders of the 21st century, and she is among the few who are not white men.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said in March that he will choose a woman as his running mate. Various lists of potential choices emerged. One, posted April 9th in the online site International Business Times, was called, “Five Potential Vice President Picks for Joe Biden.” It named Tammy Baldwin, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Gretchen Whitmer and Nelson.
Of Nelson, the story said, “There is likely no other potential progressive VP pick who checks more boxes for both the left and center of the party.”
Asked to comment on her potential candidacy for this story, Nelson said, “Being mentioned alongside these amazing women is humbling for sure.
“But my focus is labor organizing,” she said. “What’s exciting is the recognition flight attendants are getting and the force labor can play in our economy and democracy. We are at the table and we’re not taking our foot off the gas any time soon.”
Among Nelson’s advocates is Doug Parker, CEO of American Airlines
AAL, who said in an interview, “I think Sara would be a great choice. She’s smart, she’s tough, she’s forward thinking and she cares about people. She’s very good at bringing together people who have diverse interests in order to get transactions done, and she makes sure she gets work done on behalf of the people she represents.”
Parker noted that he was not evaluating Nelson in relation to the other potential nominees. Moreover, AFA does not represent American flight attendants, but it does represent the group at three American subsidiaries.
“I’ve known Sara a long time,” Parker said. “We spent a lot of time working together on the CARES Act,” particularly on the portion that provides $25 billion in grants for airlines to pay employees through Sept.30. Those grants are “the most important part” of the act, Parker said; they ensure that “airlines have the money to keep people employed, to continue to move people around the country and to be ready when demand returns.”
Nelson’s work on CARES, combined her abilities to influence national policy and to articulately represent labor in the media. At the same time, the work on CARES underscored her conflict with some leading labor unions, particularly the International Association of Machinists, whose 600,000 members include 150,000 in aviation, making it the largest aviation union.
