PASS Supports Congressional Action to Assist Airline Employees

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Published: October 02, 2020

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PASS stands with the aviation industry employees who have been furloughed after lawmakers failed to extend the Payroll Support Program. That provision in the CARES Act kept hundreds of thousands of airline workers employed by preventing the airlines from issuing layoff or furlough notices but it expired at midnight, September 30. Now, tens of thousands of aviation industry workers are facing weeks, if not months, of no pay unless Congress can reach agreement to support the industry.

PASS-represented employees at the FAA and the Department of Defense are still working, maintaining the world’s largest, safest and most complex air traffic control system in the world. “For the last six months we have worked alongside our aviation union sisters and brothers in order to support the flying public, even as air travel has plummeted,” said PASS National President Mike Perrone. “We have all done our part to ensure that much needed medicine, supplies and essential personnel have reached their destinations.”

Aviation employees account for five percent of the nation’s GDP and the aviation industry is going to be vital to the country’s economic recovery from the pandemic. But if these employees—mechanics, flight attendants, pilots, ramp workers, gate agents, customer service representatives and more—decide to find other work in order to support their families, decades of experience and knowledge will be lost. “That will be a blow to aviation safety,” continued President Perrone.

PASS joins with the other aviation unions calling on Congress to enact much needed relief for this critical industry that the nation relies on.