Quick links+
The IAM is urging for-profit companies with under 500 employees to remedy any potential hardships or threats of laying off any IAM-represented workers by utilizing a federal aid provision in the recently-enacted CARES Act.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) allows small employers to receive up to $10 million, or 2.5 times the business’ total payroll over the loan period. Unfortunately, this important loan program does not apply to unions, which face similar circumstances to those faced by employers during this crisis.
For small for-profit employers, the loans covering the first eight weeks of payroll costs are entirely forgiven as long as the business does not lay off its workers during the coronavirus crisis.
IAM officers and representatives should inform any small IAM employer claiming hardship or threatening to lay-off workers of this program.
“No IAM employer with less than 500 employees should be laying off workers or threatening to do so when the federal government is committed to paying eight weeks of our members’ wages and benefits, and offering substantial loans at low interest rates beyond those eight weeks,” IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr., said in a memo to IAM officers.
A government subsidy is also available to larger employers, or smaller employers not taking out a Small Business Administration loan, if the business’ gross receipts are below 50 percent of the comparable quarter in 2019.
Any questions from IAM representatives on these programs should be referred to Ilana Boivie of the IAM Strategic Resources Department at iboivie@iamaw.org.
