(The Transportation Trades Dept. issued the following statement on April 2.)
Bipartisan Bill Would Extend, Renew Unemployment Benefits
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The following statement was issued today by Sonny Hall, President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO.
“Transportation labor strongly endorses H.R. 1553, the Air Transportation Employees Assistance Act, legislation by Representatives Phil English (R-PA) and James Oberstar (D-MN) that would provide strong and immediate relief for airline workers. The crisis facing airline workers gets worse each day, and this bill would provide badly needed help to these women and men who, through no fault of their own, are bearing the brunt of the economic suffering caused by the airline industry s financial crisis. Today s introduction of the English-Oberstar bill, combined with yesterday bipartisan action in the Senate Appropriations Committee, gives airline industry workers real hope that Congress will provide badly needed emergency jobless benefits.
“Over 10,000 airline workers have lost their jobs just since the start of the war in Iraq. That number could soon reach 70,000, and the English-Oberstar bill recognizes this crisis by providing these workers with an additional 26 weeks of jobless benefits. The most recent wave of job cuts brings the total number of layoffs in this industry since 9/11 to more than 200,000. And many employees in this group were among the first in the country to lose their jobs after the terrorist attacks, and the first to exhaust their unemployment benefits.
“Transportation labor is appreciative of the group of lawmakers that joined Representatives English and Oberstar as original sponsors of H.R. 1553. They include Representative Bob Ney (R-OH), Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Representative Jennifer Dunn (R-WA), Representative Melissa Hart (R-PA), Representative William Lipinksi (D-IL), Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Representative Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY), and Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-KS).
“We hope that this strong showing of bipartisan support will send a clear message that this isn’t a partisan issue — it is about helping workers who face immeasurable suffering in the weeks and months ahead unless Congress acts without delay.
“Congress must rally quickly to pass this legislation and provide real help to America’s airline industry workers.”
TTD represents 35 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org