Quick links+
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Our membership has stood strong throughout this pandemic. We have held up our end of the bargain to keep our economy moving, even while thousands of our own Brothers and Sisters have been laid off or furloughed. Even worse, far too many have been sickened or passed due to the fumbled response to the coronavirus.
Your union has been out front each step of the way, advocating and winning the relief our members and millions more working people need to save their families and communities across the country. We succeeded in passing three rounds of relief, including increased unemployment benefits, stimulus checks and targeted relief for airline and aerospace workers.
Unfortunately, because of this administration’s incompetence, the pandemic continues to rage on. Our members need relief. The entire nation needs a lifeline.
But Senate Majority Leader McConnell, along with upwards of 20 Republican Senators, don’t believe our members or any struggling American family deserve another dime. The HEROES Act, passed by Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats, has sat on McConnell’s desk for five months without action. Put simply, a handful of Republican hardliners are singlehandedly holding up much-needed relief for our families.
We are done waiting and we are outraged. Instead of helping Americans who need it most, Mitch McConnell and his cohorts would rather spend the Senate’s time rushing through the unprecedented confirmation of a right-wing Supreme Court Justice—just days before the election. We join millions of Americans in telling Mitch McConnell to stop this madness and do the right thing for working families.
Especially frustrating is the refusal to pass an extension of airline worker relief, known as the Payroll Support Program. This initiative, led by the IAM and a coalition of aviation unions, proved to be one of the most successful jobs programs in the CARES Act. It kept hundreds of thousands of airline workers on the job and continuing to serve communities from coast to coast.
This relief expired on October 1, and now thousands of airline families are laid off and furloughed due to the rigid ideological stance of conservative radicals in Washington, DC.
Our members and working families see who is standing with them and who is standing against them. We will vote in historic numbers and we will never relent in calling for the relief our families need and deserve.
No more games, Mitch. Time is up.
In solidarity,
Robert Martinez Jr. Sito Pantoja
International President Transportation General Vice President
