DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF)- North Texas airline workers are pushing for congress to extend the Payroll Support Program before American Airlines flight attendants lose their jobs and benefits this October.
Paul Hartshorn with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants said the program was keeping airline workers connected to their pay checks and health benefits. However, that’s expected to run out at the end of September.
Hartshorn said if the PSP it’s not extended 8,099 American Airlines Flight Attendants will lose their jobs and healthcare virtually overnight, and it extends even further than that. “You have to look at the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are connected to the aviation industry…hospitality, the hotel van drivers, food vendors at the DFW airport…this layoff has the potential to be very far reaching in staggering numbers,” he said.
The 6-month Payroll Support Program passed in March as part of the CARES Act has successfully kept frontline aviation workers on the job amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
This week, the 26,000 members of APFA are participating in a Week of Action to urge Washington to act. The Union hosted rallies Wednesday outside the Dallas Offices for Senator Cornyn and Ted Cruz and plan to submit a hand written letter to congress Friday.
“Washington has just one month left to prevent irreversible damage—to our aviation workforce and our national economy. Inaction in Washington is jeopardizing over 75,000 US aviation jobs that could disappear on October 1st,” said Julie Hedrick, National President of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. When our airlines suffer, our national and local economies cannot reach their full potential. When jobs are lost, family members feel the pain. Millions of Americans will suffer if our aviation industry is not kept strong,” APFA National President Julie Hedrick wrote in a letter to President Trump last week. “Americans will be ready to travel again, but aviation workers will need Congress’s support until we get through this pandemic.”
