We’re Still Fighting: As Aid Talks Stall, Machinists Continue Calls for Immediate Airline Aid Extension

We’re Still Fighting: As Aid Talks Stall, Machinists Continue Calls for Immediate Airline Aid Extension

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

IAMAW Transportation Territory ///

The IAM is urging an immediate, standalone extension of expired airline worker relief, known as the Payroll Support Program (PSP). Tens of thousands of airline workers were furloughed at midnight on Thursday, October 1 after Congress could not come to terms before aid from the CARES Act ran out.

 

Reports on Thursday indicated that negotiations for an overall relief package remained far apart. Without consensus to help all Americans, the IAM is urging immediate passage of stand-alone legislation to extend the airline PSP.

 

Read the IAM’s letters to the House and Senate.

The IAM supports standalone PSP extension bills and urges House and Senate leadership to immediately pass the bipartisan Air Carrier Worker Support Extension Act, led by U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett (D-VI).

 

“As negotiations continue today on a relief package, our members are now facing the grim reality of trying to survive during the global pandemic without a paycheck and health care benefits,” said IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. “We have long supported the bipartisan negotiations to pass a comprehensive relief package to help all American workers and affected industries through the economic distress of this global pandemic, but time has run out for airline workers that we proudly represent. It is past time for Congress to act. We must act now.”

 

Both American Airlines and United Airlines proceeded with more than 32,000 furloughs beginning Thursday. Both airlines have agreed to rescind furloughs if federal aid is approved in the next few days.

 

“How much more nonsense and political posturing must the working people of our country have to endure?” said IAM Transportation General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “Our members risk their health every day to move people and goods across this country. I encourage every Machinist to loudly let Congress know how you feel.”

 

Here’s how you can still help save thousands of airline jobs:

  1. Call your Senators and Representative at 866-829-3298 and urge them to pass an extension of the airline Payroll Support Program through March 31, 2021, and to save hundreds of thousands of frontline airline workers’ jobs.

     

  2. Tell your Senators and Representative to extend airline worker relief.
“We just need to make sure that people understand that we’re people,” IAM member Andrea’ Myers, a United Airlines Reservations Agent in Detroit, told the Washington Post. “We’re not just a number at United Airlines. We have families. We have things we have to get done.”

 

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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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DL141 Video Report: Ines Garcia-Keim, President of the NJ State Council of Machinists Blazes the Path for More Women Leaders in the IAM

DL141 Video Report: Ines Garcia-Keim, President of the NJ State Council of Machinists Blazes the Path for More Women Leaders in the IAM

Sep 25, 2020 | Featured News, Front Page, MNPL, Page Five, Page Four, Page Three, Page Two, Perusals, Uncategorized | 0 comments

141 Report: New Jersey State Council of Machinists President, Ines Garcia-Keim

New Jersey State Council’s First Woman President Discusses the Importance of Regular Communication With Lawmakers, her career and why unions are still relevant. 

Like many airline workers, Sister Ines Garcia-Keim began her career at Continental Airlines in 1988 thinking she would only be there for a short time while she looked for another job. She enjoyed the work, and the flexibility suited her as a working mom. A union supporter for many years, she was excited to put her skills and experience in grassroots organizing to work when she joined the IAM after the merger of Continental and United Airlines in 2011, and became an active member of Local 914 in Newark, New Jersey. Today, she leads the Legislative Committee at her local, and is the first woman elected President of the New Jersey State Council of Machinists. 

Ines served as Shop Steward for her Customer Service group at United, and was recruited in 2016 by District 141 as an organizer for the campaign at jetBlue. She worked writing copy for organizing flyers, and two years later, District 141 PDGC Mike Klemm appointed her as a District Communications Representative. Ines completed the Leadership Training in Spanish at the Winpisinger Center, where she serves as a member of the Spanish Leadership Training Group. 

She is grateful to IAMAW Organizing Director Vinny Addeo and to District 141 AGC Rich Creighton for encouraging her to become active in her union, and works to pay it forward by mentoring younger members, especially women, to get more involved in the IAM. 

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Join the IAM COVID-19 Awareness Training via Zoom

Join the IAM COVID-19 Awareness Training via Zoom

Sep 24, 2020 | Front Page, Page Five, Page Four, Page Three, Page Two, Row 2, Uncategorized | 0 comments

IAM CREST will be hosting a free ZOOM COVID-19 awareness training on Monday, October 5, 2020 from 1 p.m. EST to 2:30 p.m. EST. This training is available to all members on a first come first serve basis. Spots are limited.

This training will be the first of a short series of trainings covering the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please reserve a spot no later than Wednesday, September 30, 2020, by emailing IAM CREST at sandh@iamaw.org. Please include the name, District, Local Lodge and email address of all participants registering.

Please consider joining IAM CREST for this very important and informative training.

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