IAMAW District 141 Video Report: Legislative Action to Prevent Airline Furloughs

IAMAW District 141 Legislative Director David Roderick Discusses Legislative Efforts to Extend the CARES Act Furlough Protections

This week’s 141 report is about Legislative action and what members should do to protect transportation Jobs. IAM 141 Director of Legislation Dave Roderick joins the conversation with host Dave Lehive.

Airlines such as American and United have promised to furlough more than 60,000 airline jobs within hours of the expiration of the CARES Act on October 1. However, Congress can extend the provision of the CARES Act that prevents furloughs.

How You Can Help Save Hundreds of Thousands of Airline Jobs

In March, as U.S. COVID-19 cases began rising exponentially, Congress rose to the occasion by enacting the CARES Act to provide assistance to tens of millions of Americans who found their financial security, if not their health, directly imperiled by the pandemic.

Among other things, the CARES Act created the Payroll Support Program (PSP), under which the Treasury Secretary issued $32 billion in grants to airlines and their contractors exclusively to keep their workers on the payroll through September 30, 2020.

But while time marches on, so does the pandemic, Airline workers are facing the worst crisis by far in the industry’s history. Last Wednesday, a major airline put 36,000 workers across the country on notice that they could be furloughed on or after October 1. Other carriers have issued and will issue similar notices.

Please ask your member of Congress to join House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) on a bipartisan letter to House and Senate Leadership, urging them to extend the PSP authorities in the CARES Act through March 31, 2021, and save hundreds of thousands of frontline airline workers’ jobs.

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