Last Clock Video Goes Viral As Airline Job Cuts Begin

Last Clock Video Goes Viral As Airline Job Cuts Begin

Sep 30, 2020 | Airlines, American, COVID, Featured News, Front Page, Hawaiian, MNPL, Page Five, Page Four, Page Three, Page Two, Perusals, Philippine, Row 2, Spirit, Uncategorized, United, Video | 0 comments

/// Click Here to see video on Facebook ///

A “last clock” video posted on Tuesday to TikTok and Facebook by a United Airlines Customer Service Agent is drawing attention to the thousands of airline employees who are losing their jobs due to congressional inaction. 

Vange Arizala, a member of IAM Local 2239G, is one of 30 agents at United in Guam who are being furloughed due to the pandemic-related collapse in air traffic. The airline plans to furlough about 16,000 employees like Vange this week, after an extension of the Payroll Support Program for airlines failed to materialize. Across the industry, over 200,000 airline employees and related workers are expecting to become jobless. 

On her last day at work, Vange filmed her final trip to the timeclock and her final look at the A.B. Won Pat International Airport (GUM) in Guam. The mood is both optimistic and heartbreaking.

“I’m going to miss this work, and I’m going to miss you guys,” Vange tells coworkers in the post as she records her final walk through the breakroom. With the United Airlines’ theme song “Rhapsody in Blue” playing in the background, she tells friends that the situation is only temporary. “I’ll be back,” she says confidently.

Finding herself working with only one other employee, Vange suggested capturing the moment on video. “After everyone went up to (UA flight) 200, Joel & I were the only ones left at the counter,” she said. “I told him, ‘let’s do a mini photoshoot!’ I was happy to see Mike & Luisa walk in so we had more people to take pictures with. It was like a skeleton crew this morning!”

The “last clock” video posted on Tuesday to TikTok and Facebook by a United Airlines Customer Service Agent is drawing attention to the thousands of airline employees who are losing their jobs due to congressional inaction. 

Vange Arizala, a member of IAM Local 2239G, is one of 30 agents at United in Guam who are being furloughed due to the pandemic-related collapse in air traffic. The airline plans to furlough about 16,000 employees like Vange this week, after an extension of the Payroll Support Program for airlines failed to materialize. Across the industry, over 200,000 airline employees and related workers are expecting to become jobless. 

On her last day at work, Vange filmed her final trip to the timeclock and her final look at the A.B. Won Pat International Airport (GUM) in Guam. The mood is both optimistic and heartbreaking.

“I’m going to miss this work, and I’m going to miss you guys,” Vange tells coworkers in the post as she records her final walk through the breakroom. With the United Airlines’ theme song “Rhapsody in Blue” playing in the background, she tells friends that the situation is only temporary. “I’ll be back,” she says confidently.

Finding herself working with only one other employee, Vange suggested capturing the moment on video. “After everyone went up to (UA flight) 200, Joel & I were the only ones left at the counter,” she said. “I told him, ‘let’s do a mini photoshoot!’ I was happy to see Mike & Luisa walk in so we had more people to ta

Friends were quick to flood her comments with warm thoughts and fond expressions of friendship. “Vangie… what a graceful exit!” said Carol Salgado of Hagatna. 

Efforts by airline workers to avoid historic job losses in commercial aviation have been nothing short of heroic. Union members have sent over 90,000 messages to lawmakers, winning the support of both parties and the president for an extension of the Payroll Support Program (PSP). The program was part of the CARES Act which paid labor costs for airlines while forbidding them from conducting layoffs. Early retirements, union-negotiated buyout offers, and partial pay programs have cut the number of involuntary furloughs by thousands. A new COVID relief package including the PSP is still being negotiated by House Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and has yet to be formally introduced.   

Vange Arizala (on right) in a pre-pandemic pose with friends at work.

Earlier in the day, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told a CNN interviewer that he would consider postponing layoffs for a few days if Congress could ensure that a job package would happen soon. The current PSP expires at midnight on September 30, which triggered the furloughs. 

When asked about the decision to share her touching farewell message, Vange said that building community was important at this moment. “So many of us are going through this,” she said. “It may help to know that we are going through it together.” 

 

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Updated HEROES Act Introduced as Time Runs Out for Airline Workers

Updated HEROES Act Introduced as Time Runs Out for Airline Workers

Sep 29, 2020 | Airlines, American, COVID, Featured, Featured News, Front Page, Hawaiian, MNPL, Organizing, Page Five, Page Four, Page Three, Page Two, Perusals, Philippine, Row 2, Spirit, Uncategorized, United | 0 comments

Texas Senator Cornyn’s Support Boosts Chances for Passage in the Senate 

On Monday evening, House Democrats led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced a revised version of the HEROES Act, which includes $25 billion in funding for airline workers and another $3 billion for airline contractors. With a bipartisan majority of members of the House of Representatives on record supporting an extension of the Payroll Support Act (PSP), if the bill earns support in the Republican-controlled Senate, the eventual extension of the funding is all but assured.

If the bill fails to become law immediately, however, airlines may begin laying off tens of thousands of workers as they wait for lawmakers to seal the deal. IAMAW District 141 President Mike Klemm worries that many junior airline workers may not get called back to work – even if the aid comes within a few days of the PSP expiration. “I have seen nothing in this funding that would force airlines to bring our members back immediately upon passage. We need this bill to become the law before midnight tomorrow. Our members have no more time,” Klemm stated. 

The support from Republican lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, is vital for the passage of a clean extension of airline payroll assistance. 

In a letter to the Machinists last week, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) joined 16 members of his caucus who have voiced support for union workers facing catastrophic job cuts in the American aviation industry. Over 200,000 airline and aviation workers are expected to lose their jobs starting on Thursday.  An extension of the Payroll Support Program, a provision of the CARES Act, would prevent job cuts until March 30, 2021. 

“In recent weeks, several airlines have notified significant segments of their workforces that their jobs could be at risk on October 1,” Senator Cornyn said in the statement. “With air travel anticipated to remain low in the near future, a clean extension would maintain the goal of the CARES Act and avoid further layoffs.”

Klemm spoke with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) during the IAMAW Day of Action last week while encouraging every Machinists Union member to contact their representatives to help them understand the urgency. “This revised bill has relief for many segments of our economy, which is needed, and we are happy they are being addressed, but airlines aren’t just another business, they are also a utility. Like roads and bridges and a fully functioning electric grid, air lanes must be in place before an economic recovery can happen. If we need to use taxpayer money, let’s use it to keep highly skilled airline workers on the job, and help bring back our economy, instead of having them join the millions who are unemployed.” 

“Both parties and the president support an extension of this aid,” Klemm added. “But I don’t know if lawmakers understand the deadline airline workers face. This has to happen, and it has to happen now.” Klemm urged all union members to make a call to their lawmakers and remind them that September 30 is the last day to prevent tens of thousands of job cuts.

Additional Resources /// Tell Lawmakers: Support for Airline Payrolls Cannot Wait  /// Read the joint airline union letter the IAMAW sent to the Senate last week

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Rep. Mucarsel-Powell Discusses the Urgent Need to Enact the New Heroes Act

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Sep 29, 2020 | COVID, Featured News, Front Page, MNPL, Page Five, Page Four, Page Three, Page Two, Perusals, Row 2, Uncategorized, Video | 0 comments

The House passes an airline relief bill as the industry begins most massive job losses in history.

 More than 36,000 airline workers will lose their jobs if the House and Senate do not extend payroll support before October 1. After long months of summer vacations, finger pointing and excuses, both parties finally seem ready to make a deal that would prevent the most catastrophic job cuts in the history of United States aviation. But, with only hours left, will they actually do it in time?

Additional Resources /// Tell Lawmakers: Support for Airline Payrolls Cannot Wait  /// Read the joint airline union letter the IAMAW sent to the Senate last week

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IAM Pushes for Airline Worker Relief on Capitol Hill

IAM Pushes for Airline Worker Relief on Capitol Hill

Sep 28, 2020 | Airlines, COVID, Featured, Featured News, Front Page, GOIAM Stories, MNPL, Page Five, Page Four, Page Three, Page Two, Perusals, Row 2 | 0 comments

Outside the U.S. Capitol, IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. joined other labor leaders, airline executives, and politicians to call for an extension of the airline Payroll Support Program (PSP) which offers emergency funding to airline workers that have been decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The act, which will save over 100,000 jobs if extended, expires September 30.

Additional Resources /// CLICK HERE to send a message to Lawmakers 

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Do it Again – All Airline Workers Contact Your Lawmakers: Furloughs Start In Less Than a Week

Do it Again – All Airline Workers Contact Your Lawmakers: Furloughs Start In Less Than a Week

Sep 25, 2020 | Airlines, COVID, Featured News, Front Page, GOIAM Stories, MNPL, Page Four, Page Three, Page Two, Perusals, Row 2 | 0 comments

With the airline Paycheck Support Program (PSP) contained in the CARES Act set to expire next Wednesday, September 30, we are urging all members to continue imploring Congress to pass a clean extension of the PSP through March 2021. Adding to the urgency is the possibility of the Republican-majority Senate going on another vacation beginning today, Friday, September 25.
 
The IAM has led the fight on Capitol Hill from the onset and with only five days remaining, we must increase the pressure.
 
TAKE ACTION NOW:
 
1-      Call your Senators and Representative at 866-829-3298 to urge them to pass a clean extension of the PSP through March 31, 2021, and to save hundreds of thousands of frontline airline workers’ jobs.
 
 
“The Machinists Union stands shoulder to shoulder with Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer in their effort to get a coronavirus relief package passed for all Americans,” said IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. “It is an outrage that working families have already waited more than four months since the House passed the HEROES Act. The Machinists Union will do anything to support our membership and the tens of thousands of our airline members who will be laid off on Oct. 1.”
 

“With only five days remaining before the PSP expires, it is more important than ever that we turn up the heat in Congress,” said Transportation General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “We must band together, use our collective voice and protect the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Machinists.”

District President Mike Klemm underscored the urgent need to contact members of Congress and Senate, and stress to them how vital this aid is to airline workers. “Our junior members are under incredible stress right now. This level of inaction by lawmakers is inexcusable. Both parties support an extension. It needs to get done, and it needs to get done now.”

 
The IAM supports the Air Carrier Worker Support Extension Act of 2020 (S.4634), introduced by Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and the companion bill (H.R. 8345) introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Stacey (D-VI) and Rep. David Joyce (R-OH). Both bills have been referred to committees and are gathering bi-partisan support.
 
The IAM this week sent a joint airline union coalition letter to senators, pushing them to immediately pass a clean extension of the PSP.

Additional Resources  ///  Contact Your Senator and Ask Them to Extend the Payroll Support Program

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IAM Joins Airline, Labor Coalition Demanding Congress Pass Clean Payroll Support Extension Now

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Sep 23, 2020 | COVID, Featured News, Front Page, GOIAM Stories, MNPL, Page Five, Page Four, Page Three, Uncategorized | 0 comments

UPDATE 9/23/2020: Government Affairs Representatives at United Airlines told a group of employees at a town hall meeting on Thursday that Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Rick Scott (R-FL) have blocked a unanimous consent motion to advance a clean extension of the Payroll Support Program. This move will delay any progress on the bill for now. The Payroll Support Program is vital to thousands of airline workers who are facing furloughs within one week if funding is not extended by September 30.

The IAM, along with leaders from a coalition of airline unions and airline carriers, today sounded the alarm on Capitol Hill to push Congress to act immediately to pass a clean extension of the Payroll Support Program (PSP). There are only eight days remaining before the PSP expires, and without a clean extension, hundreds of thousands of airline workers face the possibility of being furloughed.

“As the largest airline union in the world, the Machinists Union implores Congress to act now to save the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of airline workers by passing a clean extension of the airline Payroll Support Program,” said IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. “We will need the full force of every airline worker to lift our country back up when America is ready to fly again. In the meantime, we can’t abandon the men and women who have so bravely kept our nation moving during this difficult time.”

The IAM last week held a nationwide Airline Day of Action, demanding that Congress act now to pass legislation to stem layoffs. IAM members met with Senators and Senate staff, either virtually or in person, in 32 cities in over 20 states.

“Congress has to stop placing a greater importance on their political standing and start thinking about the livelihoods of aviation’s frontline workers,” said IAM Transportation General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “Bipartisan support has already been expressed, but the clock is ticking. Every day airline workers risk their health to move America. Now, Congress needs to move to protect them.”

Here’s how you can help save airline jobs:

  1. Call your Senators at 866-829-3298 to urge them to pass a clean extension of the PSP through March 31, 2021, and to save hundreds of thousands of frontline airline workers’ jobs.
  2. Email your Senators.

The Paycheck Support Program contained in the CARES Act is set to expire on October 1, 2020. Carriers are making plans on how to deal with its loss, and the outlook doesn’t look good for airline workers.

American Airlines will cut more than 40,000 jobs, including 19,000 through furloughs and layoffs, Southwest Airlines is eliminating 35,000 flights from its October schedule, and Air Wisconsin, Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, ExpressJet, Hawaiian Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United Airlines and United Ground Express have issued Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN). 

Additional Resources  ///  Contact Your Senator and Ask Them to Extend the Payroll Support Program

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