Working people need relief now and airline workers are facing a Wednesday, September 30 deadline before hundreds of thousands of airline employees lose their jobs.
Here’s how you can take action now:
- Call your Senators and Representative at 866-829-3298and urge them to pass a clean extension of the airline Payroll Support Program through March 31, 2021, and to save hundreds of thousands of frontline airline workers’ jobs.
- Tell your Senators and Representative to extend airline worker relief.
Help is needed across the country due to the toll of the pandemic, and the IAM strongly believes these needs must be addressed. Action is needed immediately for airline workers, since airlines will be forced to make business decisions that can’t be reversed after mass layoffs.
“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.”
WATCH: IAM Pushes for Airline Worker Relief on Capitol Hill
Lengthy and expensive training requirements for airline workers will hold up the nation’s recovery even longer once America is ready to fly again.
“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.”
READ: Unfriendly skies: Airline workers brace for mass layoffs Associated Press
“With only one day remaining before the PSP expires, it is more important than ever that we turn up the heat in Congress,” said IAM Transportation General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “We must band together, use our collective voice and protect the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Machinists.”
The IAM supports stand-alone PSP extension bills and urges House and Senate leadership to pass the bipartisan Air Carrier Worker Support Extension Act, led by U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett (D-VI).
The IAM this week sent a joint airline union coalition letter to Senators, pushing them to immediately pass a clean extension of the PSP.
Keep up the pressure!
Your calls are working! Congress is feeling the heat of thousands of airline workers who will be laid off if #ReliefNow is not passed!
— Machinists Union
866-829-3298 
(@MachinistsUnion)
The post Tell Congress to Make a Deal Now: Airline Workers Face Mass Layoffs Past Sept. 30 Deadline appeared first on IAMAW.