New House Measure Would Require Masks on Flights

New House Measure Would Require Masks on Flights

Aug 4, 2020 | Airlines, COVID, Featured News, Front Page, MNPL, Row 2, Uncategorized | 0 comments

The Healthy Flights Act of 2020 protects passengers and also ensures pilots, flight attendants, and other airline employees are provided masks and other protective equipment, requires the development of a national aviation pandemic preparedness plan, and commissions a study on transmission of infectious diseases in airplane cabins.

Washington, D.C. — Last week, Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Chair of the Subcommittee on Aviation Rick Larsen (D-WA) led 18 Members of Congress in the introduction of the Healthy Flights Act of 2020, which will provide a set of uniform requirements to help keep passengers and airline and airport workers healthy by minimizing transmission of the virus through our air transportation system. The Healthy Flights Act also helps prepare U.S. aviation stakeholders for future infectious disease pandemics and epidemics through the development of a national preparedness plan to define the aviation system’s response to future outbreaks and by advancing scientific research.

Specifically, the bill

  • Clarifies the FAA’s authority to impose any requirements on passenger and cargo air travel necessary to protect the health and safety of airline workers and passengers during public health emergencies;
  • Requires that passengers must wear masks on board aircraft and within airports, and also requires issuance of masks and other protective equipment to airline employees and certain FAA employees (including air traffic controllers and aviation safety inspectors), during any public health emergency that is caused by an airborne disease;
  • Mandates the development of a national aviation preparedness plan to respond to epidemics or pandemics;
  • Calls for a study on transmission of infectious diseases in airplane cabins; and
  • Creates an FAA Center of Excellence on Infectious Disease Response and Prevention in Aviation to advise the FAA Administrator on infectious diseases and air travel.

“I really can’t see any downsides to this bill,” said International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 141 Legislative Director Dave Roderick. “How we deal with this pandemic, the effort that we are willing to put into the protection of our nation, the sacrifices and responsibilities that we are willing to take on…these things will define our generation for the duration of the Republic.”

“All airline workers should help defend our industry. This disease should not be allowed to get past us,” Roderick said.

“As Chair of the Aviation Subcommittee, I make air travel safety my top priority,” Chair Rick Larsen said. “Keeping the flying public safe from COVID is even more difficult because of the lack of coordinated federal leadership. This bill includes commonsense measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 in air travel, ensure the safety of passengers and frontline aviation workers, and better prepare the U.S. aviation industry for public health crises.”

In June, District 141 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, one of the largest groups of airline/aviation workers in North America, recommended that all airline workers wear masks whenever social distancing could not be reliably maintained. IAMAW District 141 President and Directing General Chair, Mike Klemm issued a statement at the time telling union members that their safety could not be compromised under any circumstances. “My foremost concern is your health and well-being as we adapt to life during this pandemic,” Klemm told union members. “Protecting our industry and our jobs will require a collective effort from all of us. I ask the members of IAMAW District 141 to protect yourselves, protect your co-workers, and protect your loved ones who depend on you every day.”

Additional resources: Fact Sheet | Section by Section| Bill Text

 

 

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Senate Plan Does Not Include Funds for Airlines to Avoid Furloughs

Senate Plan Does Not Include Funds for Airlines to Avoid Furloughs

Aug 3, 2020 | Airlines, American, COVID, Featured News, Front Page, GOIAM Stories, MNPL, Philippine, Row 2, Spirit, Uncategorized, United | 0 comments

The GOP has released the details of their latest COVID-19 relief legislation named the “HEALS Act.” The proposed legislation not only cuts unemployment benefits to the 20 to 30 million Americans who are currently out of work, but falls short in just about every area of concern for working families.

“This legislation is a slap in the face to working people in this country,” said International President Robert Martinez Jr. “They have no problem handing out a trillion dollars in tax cuts to corporations, but want to nickel and dime unemployed Americans at a time when they need it the most. It appears the Senate may go on summer recess a week from now without bringing a bill to a vote, leaving millions of Americans to fend for themselves when additional pandemic economic compensation ends this Friday. They need to pass a relief package that benefits the people they are supposed to be representing.”

Please contact your Senators and tell them to pass a relief package that helps working people.

In addition to cutting pandemic unemployment compensation from $600 a week to 200 a week, the HEALS Act shortcomings include:

  • No airline or railroad relief
  • Immunity for companies that endanger their employees and the public
  • No OSHA standard protecting employees
  • NO pension relief, no COBRA subsidy, no eviction moratorium extension
  • Fast track to cut Social Security and Medicare (TRUST ACT)
  • No relief money for state and local governments
  • No money for USPS
  • Inadequate funding for schools
  • No funding for, or protections for election
  • No hazard pay for essential employees

Legislators are running out of time, as many of the provisions in the last COVID-19 relief package are about to expire, and some have already ended.

“Disaster is on America’s doorstep,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). “Republicans need to get serious immediately, and work with Democrats to save lives and livelihoods during this devastating time.”

“One of the few things that’s kept our economy from deteriorating further is that these unemployment benefits have boosted consumer spending,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “That’s why economists say the Republican proposal would cost us over a million jobs this year, and 3.4 million jobs next year.”

 

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Find out which Senators have yet to support airline aid to prevent furloughs this fall >>

Act NOW: tell your lawmakers that you want them to support airline aid that would prevent furloughs this fall >>

Video Report: Airline Safety During the Pandemic

Video Report: Airline Safety During the Pandemic

Jul 31, 2020 | Airlines, American, COVID, Featured, Featured News, Front Page, Row 2, Safety, Uncategorized | 0 comments

A Conversation About Union-Level Safety Activism With Dennis Spencer

Gate-Side Airline Safety Activism, Created, Directed and Maintained by Front-Line Union Members

Brother Spencer has been fighting for workers safety since 2008, when he became the Safety Chair for his Philadelphia Local.   Three Years ago District Lodge 141 PDGC Mike Klemm appointed Brother Dennis as a 141 Safety Coordinator. Dennis Hired on with Legacy US 1989-accumulating over 31 years of airline experience  he currently is an IAM/TWU Association GSAP ERC member and is also the Union Safety System Administrator. In that role, Dennis is charged with collecting and maintaining data critical achieving a safe workplace at airports aroung the nation.

He is a proud member of  the Obie O’Brian Local 1776 family where he currently serves as a Trustee and as a EAP Peer to Peer Representative.

Dennis has been very active over the years since 2002 doing Community Service for different Charities, including youth sports and  raising over 250,000 dollars in Free Style Wrestling.

Dennis is Married and Has an 18 year old son.

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Travel Industry CEOs: “Testing enables reopening.”

Travel Industry CEOs: “Testing enables reopening.”

Jul 30, 2020 | Airlines, COVID, Featured News, Front Page, Row 2, Uncategorized | 0 comments

July 27, 2020

Dear Mr. President, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, Leader McConnell and Leader Schumer,

A reopening of the U.S. economy is critical, and the only way to sustain job growth is to drive demand. One of the major challenges of a national economic recovery will be restarting the $2.6 trillion American travel industry, which has been virtually shut down by the coronavirus pandemic. Restoring travel will require an aggressive and comprehensive suite of measures to provide relief, protection, and stimulus for travel-related businesses—83% of which are small businesses.

The events of recent weeks have made very clear one indispensable component of efforts to spur a national recovery from the health and economic crises: broadening the availability of efficient, effective, 24-to-48-hour COVID-19 testing.

As a start, we urge the swift consideration and passage of the TEST Act, bipartisan Senate legislation that would enhance the resources and collaboration tools the federal government devotes to COVID-19 testing.

Travel, which supported employment for one in 10 Americans before the pandemic, has already lost more than half of the 15.8 million jobs our industry supported in 2019—more than a third of the total U.S. jobs lost to this pandemic. The drop in travel-related spending is projected to cost the U.S. economy $1.2 trillion by the end of this year. In short, there can be no broader economic recovery without a recovery in travel.

The travel industry has aggressively gathered data on the coronavirus outbreak and its fallout in order to inform our exhaustive deliberations on best health practices, trends and attitudes among travel consumers, and the proper timing of a safe reopening of the American travel economy. Analysis of the data leads to the conclusion that broader testing—in concert with other key factors such as a robust federal policy framework of relief and stimulus, rigorous health and safety standards adopted by travel-related businesses, and the universal embrace of good health practices (such as the wearing of masks) by the public—is an essential component of reopening and recovery. To maximize effectiveness, it is also important that testing methods return results within 24 to 48 hours.

As detailed in a COVID-19 testing white paper produced by the U.S. Travel Association, wider availability of testing would accomplish a number of important aims:

  • Helping to determine whether reopening is safe—and, conversely, whether further economic relief will be needed.

  • Helping to keep employees safe and businesses open.

  • Promoting safe and healthy travel.

  • Restoring consumer confidence and generating travel demand—leading in turn to accelerated rehiring

U.S. Travel has further identified the following areas of need to achieve the improvement and broadening of coronavirus testing on the scale needed to help ignite an economic revival:

  • Improving the accuracy and speed of data collection for testing and contact tracing.

  • Increasing available resources for research, development, and validation of new, rapid, and accurate tests.

  • Investing in expanded production, laboratory capacity, and testing sites.

  • Increasing access to worker testing.

  • Developing digital tracing and tracking tools.

  • Standardizing tracing and tracking systems, and making them interoperable.

  • Updating and expanding CDC testing guidelines.

At this unprecedented moment in our history, with our economy continuing to suffer the impact of this pandemic, we are unanimous in our belief that a strong federal role is both necessary and appropriate to achieve the necessary enhancements to our national testing capability.

The bipartisan TEST Act includes many important policy adjustments to bolster the federal role in testing. It supports improvements in testing and reporting practices of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); it invites the participation of experts to more fully integrate laboratory and epidemiological systems; it mandates measurable steps toward improving the rapidity and accuracy of testing, and defines it as an essential public health security capability; and it revamps grant structures to better support the disease detection activities of state and local health departments, among other measures.

We urge Congress to include the TEST Act in the next phase of coronavirus response legislation, and to provide more robust federal investment in the research, development, distribution, and capacity of COVID-19 testing. The federal government must also continue to provide leadership through developing a national strategy, validating new testing technologies and protocols, and encouraging a more coordinated response across all levels of government.

These actions, taken as part of the evolving and comprehensive government and private-sector response to the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic emergency, will clearly help to speed the nation’s course past the current crises and onto the path of a return to health and prosperity. The mounting evidence concludes:

Testing enables reopening. Testing enables rehiring. Testing enables recovery.

The millions of jobs lost to this pandemic across all segments of the travel spectrum can only return if demand for our products and services rebounds. That demand from travelers is inextricably linked to the confidence that rapid and abundant testing will create.

 

Signed, 

 

Heather McCrory
Accor North America, Inc.

David Kong
BWH Hotel Group

Pat Pacious
Choice Hotels International, Inc.

Chrissy Taylor
Enterprise Holdings, Inc.

Chris Nassetta
Hilton

Jim Risoleo
Host Hotels & Resorts

Mark Hoplamazian
Hyatt Hotels Corporation

George Markantonis
Las Vegas Sands Corporation

Elie Maalouf
InterContinental Hotels Group

Jonathan Tisch
Loews Hotels & Co

Heather McCrory
Accor North America, Inc.

Arne Sorenson
Marriott International

Roger Dow
U.S. Travel Association

Geoff Ballotti
Wyndham Hotels & Resort

Machinist & Aerospace History: Buzz Aldrin and the Machinist Moonwalk

Machinist & Aerospace History: Buzz Aldrin and the Machinist Moonwalk

Jul 30, 2020 | Featured, Front Page, GOIAM Stories, Organizing, Row 2, Uncategorized | 0 comments

On July 20, 1969, millions of people watched in awe as astronauts Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon for the first time. Aldrin, an honorary IAM member, was part of a three-man crew that flew a 240,000-mile flight aboard Apollo 11.

Aldrin’s team was initially shot to space on July 16 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center aboard a giant 36-story-tall Saturn V rocket, which was built by nine IAM locals in Florida.

“I watched out the window to see Neil go down the ladder,” said Aldrin about the historic mission. “When it was my turn to back out, I remembered the checklist said to reach back carefully and close the hatch, being careful not to lock it.”

Aldrin accepted his honorary Machinist membership card in 1967 at the IAM Aerospace Conference in Houston after working as an onboard mechanic on the Gemini 12 space mission a year earlier. During the banquet, which was hosted by then IAM Headquarters General Vice President Ross Mathews, Aldrin thanked the union.

“This means an awful lot and I appreciate it,” said Aldrin. “Thank you very much.”

During his acceptance speech, Aldrin would go on to praise Machinists who helped make space flight possible.

“We really appreciate everything the group has done for us in making many events that we have been able to participate in,” said Aldrin.

In addition to building the space vehicles that flew Aldrin and his team to the moon, IAM members would go on to play a pivotal role upon their return to Earth. More than 100 IAM Local 1786 members operated a sophisticated scientific lab at NASA in Houston that quarantined the astronauts for three weeks as doctors monitored their health.

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Machinists, Aviation Unions Commend Bipartisan Push for Airline Worker Payroll Support Program Extension

Machinists, Aviation Unions Commend Bipartisan Push for Airline Worker Payroll Support Program Extension

Jul 29, 2020 | Airlines, American, COVID, Featured News, Front Page, MNPL, Organizing, Row 2, Uncategorized, United | 0 comments

The IAM along with other aviation unions are lauding 223 bipartisan members of Congress for calling for an extension of the CARES Act Payroll Support Program (PSP) through March 31, 2021.

The program, which allocated grants to commercial airlines and airline contractors for the exclusive purpose of keeping employees on payroll with wages and benefits, is set to expire September 30, 2020.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) led the letter to congressional leadership.

 “The IAM thanks the 223 members of Congress for swiftly responding to the airline industry’s call for an extension of the Payroll Support Program grants,” said IAM Transportation General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “The continuation of this program is vital to protecting the livelihoods of thousands of Machinists come October 1. The IAM will continue to lead the fight on Capitol Hill to ensure our members’ futures.”

With the resurgence of COVID-19 in several states across the country and a vaccine for the virus yet to be developed, passenger demand for air travel will not recover before the PSP expires. Without an extension of the PSP before then, hundreds of thousands of airline workers could be furloughed on October 1.

 As a response to the worst financial crisis in U.S. airline industry history brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. airlines received $50 billion under the March 2020 CARES Act, with $25 billion in direct grants to be utilized exclusively for the continuation of airline workers’ pay, benefits, and employment.

 

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