Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday opened the door to standalone legislation to provide relief for airlines and called on the companies to hold off on furloughs.
“I am calling upon the airlines to delay their devastating job cuts as relief for airline workers is being advanced in Congress,” the Democrat from California said in a statement.
Pelosi said that the relief would come as a standalone bill if it could not be part of an aid package that she and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have been trying to advance, without success so far.
“As relief for airline workers is being advanced, the airline industry must delay these devastating job cuts,” Pelosi said.
More than 32,000 airline workers were furloughed Thursday as pandemic aid expired and Washington leaders failed to agree to additional relief.
American Airlines and United Airlines have sent furlough notices to over 32,000 workers. Alaska Airlines announced that over 500 jobs would be furloughed, according to local news.
The CARES Act enacted in March provided the airline industry $25 billion in aid as long as no workers were furloughed before Thursday. The airline executives have asked for an additional $25 billion in aid, which would be expected to help keep workers employed through March 2021.
If relief comes, it needs to be soon.
Nicholas Calio, the president and CEO of advocacy group Airlines for America, cautioned that it would be difficult to reverse furloughs lasting more than a couple of days because workers would fall behind in the training required to do their jobs.
“You can’t just bring them back and put them back on the airplane or put the machinist back under the airline. … There’s a constant process of recertification. … You can’t just take the keys and throw them at the pilot [and say], ‘OK, start up the plane,’ after they’ve been off for a month or two,” he told CNN.
