Flight Attendants President Says Proposed Relief Package a Stop-Gap

Sara Nelson, president of the powerful Association of Flight Attendants-CWA International union, said Tuesday she is thankful for a newly proposed government relief package – but that it shouldn’t be the last.

“We agree with President-Elect Biden that this is ‘just the start.’ This is not – and cannot be – the last COVID package,” Nelson said in a statement. “But American workers and the U.S. economy are teetering on the brink of disaster. We cannot afford weeks or months longer without federal rescue aid.”

The overall stimulus package would be for $908 billion, short of the $1.3 trillion CARES Act that was passed by Congress in March. This second stimulus has been delayed four months now, mostly by partisan bickering among lawmakers and partly when Congress shut down for the national election.

Airlines received $25 billion in March in the initial aid package with a speedy and near-unanimous vote of bipartisan support, including 96-0 in the Senate and 419-6 in the House.

“At the time, everyone hoped we’d be in a place of recovery by the fall but the situation has only gotten worse,” said Nelson, the head of a union that represents more than 50,000 flight attendants at 17 airlines. “Inaction now means millions more will go hungry, homeless, and suffer as the virus rages on and essential workers face increasingly unsafe conditions at work.”

According to Reuters, Warner’s office said the plan includes $15 billion for transit systems, $4 billion for airports, $8 billion for private buses and $1 billion for passenger railroad Amtrak.

The proposal is designed to provide assistance for four months; Congress and President-elect Biden can then decide in March whether the airlines need another relief package beyond that.

Whether the proposal will have the support of the current White House and Congress remains to be seen.

“The day after Christmas, 12 million workers will lose access to any unemployment benefits and as many as 40 million will be put at risk of eviction,” Nelson said. “…This crisis is bigger than any previous economic crisis of the last hundred years combined. We need to act like it. But we are at the edge of the cliff right now. We need a rescue package in place yesterday to be strong enough to fight for the recovery working people truly deserve for keeping our country going even in times of crisis. We look forward to fighting for that full and corrective recovery. But we can’t do that if we don’t stop the bleeding now.”

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