Patricia Friend has been a pioneer for the rights of women and people of color and has worked unselfishly to advance the working conditions of flight attendants across the globe.
A United flight attendant since 1966, Friend was elected president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) in 1995 and served through 2010. Under her leadership, AFA-CWA fought for, and won, whistle blower protections for aviation employees, increased penalties for passengers who interfere with crew member duties, a smoking ban on international flights, an extension of the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover all flight crew members, seniority protections for flight attendants in the event of a merger and an opened door for occupational safety and health protections for all flight attendants.
The Ada Brown Greenfield Lifetime Achievement Award presented to her last year by the AFA-CWA Board of Directors describes Pat Friend aptly“as a living testament to the power of what we can achieve through the labor movement….What she has helped accomplish for our profession is hard to quantify, but without her incredible endurance and efforts, flight attendants would likely still be suffering under unfair and unjust airline employee policies.”
Friend has been a strong, clear voice on the AFL-CIO Executive Council, where she expanded her role as a leader in the struggle for the advancement of women and people of color to the entire union movement.She has been an outspoken advocate for worker safety as well as financial transparency and accountability at the AFL-CIO. And as the rules in the global aviation arena have become increasingly liberalized, she has distinguished herself as an outspoken leader in defense of aviation labor and aviation transportation.