Introducing The Lebanese Cabin Crew Association
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Even small unions can achieve a lot, says George Turkieh
About us
Cabin crew in the Lebanon used to be part of the pilots’ union. In 1970, we won some autonomy within the union by electing a board for cabin crew. By 1990, as cabin crew we were able to establish an independent union, and elect our own board.
Cabin crew are safety professionals, so our union has always focused on:
- Cabin crew licensing and medical fitness
- Duty and flight time limitations
- Improving working conditions.
In Lebanon, cabin crew have to be licensed as fit to fly. So our other focus was on the legislation concerning the licence, which is monitored by the national civil aviation authority.
Our challenges
As part of the pilots’ union, we were able to keep the airline, Middle East Airlines, working during the civil war in Lebanon (1975-1990), even though the airport was frequently closed. From 1975 to 1976, the airline unions proposed transferring operations from the regular national airline to a charter company abroad. The employer agreed to the union’s plan, which kept 5000 employees in work and still able to cash their salaries despite airport closures. The plan saved the airline from closing.
We also had to fight the impact of the airline restructuring plan in 2001. One proposal was to lower the retirement age for cabin crew from 60 years to 50 years. The union was strongly opposed to this. After a long negotiation, and ITF support, the retirement age was frozen, and we agreed to renegotiate by the end of 2009.
We are about to reach an agreement with airline management to permanently keep the cabin crew retirement age at 60.
Our achievements
Perhaps our biggest achievement was to get off the ground: we managed to found an independent union for cabin crew during the Lebanon civil war.
More recently, we have worked hard to give our members good benefits.
Workers are not guaranteed medical insurance after their retirement in Lebanon, so the union established a medical scheme for after retirement for their members. We also created a fund so members can receive a pension when they retire (there is no state pension in Lebanon).
Cabin crew can take out a specialist ‘loss of licence’ insurance to cover them in case their licence is revoked, for example if they develop a health condition that stops them from flying. We transferred our members’ loss of licence insurance contract from a private insurance company to the union. As far as we know this is the world’s only “insurance scheme of this type”.
Last but not least, we publish a magazine called The Lebanese Wings, which is distributed to all cabin crew and airline staff at Beirut International Airport and all Middle Eastern airlines offices.
In this way, we can communicate our news and achievements with union members and beyond.
Our union and the ITF
Our union has always been involved in international work. When we were first founded, our union had a lot of difficulties organising cabin crew and dealing with airline management. Our initial strategy was based on information from European unions, especially France, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. So from the start, sharing information internationally has been important to us.
We played a key role in the International Cabin Crew Association (ICCA). For example we organised the ICCA congress in Beirut, Lebanon in 1999. The ICCA was dissolved in 2000, in favour of the ITF.
Since then we have worked closely with the ITF. We played a part in the establishment of the ITF regional office in Amman. We regularly work with Bilal Malkawi, the regional officer. In 2005, we joined the European Transport Workers’ Federation as observers. And in 2008, there was an agreement promoting very close cooperation with the Jordanian civil aviation and tourism union, including sharing information of working conditions and solidarity.
In our work, we have always believed that even the smallest unions can achieve a lot.
George Turkieh is the international relations coordinator of the LCCA.
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