Washington, DC — Larry Willis, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issues this statement as lawmakers consider emergency financial aid to airlines, and as airlines advocate for ‘minimum conditions’ on such aid:
“For weeks, TTD and our aviation unions have been calling on immediate aid to the airline industry in order to pay workers, maintain benefits, and provide healthcare. Airlines asking for ‘minimum conditions’ is code for ‘give us a blank check.’ American workers will never support any legislation that provides taxpayer money for corporations without requirements that this aid go directly to frontline workers. Any financial assistance to the airlines must include guarantees that the money be spent solely on worker pay and benefits, prohibitions on using these funds to undermine the collective bargaining process, protections from abrogating union contracts in bankruptcy, and ensuring basic health care, including for airline catering workers. The men and women who power this industry deserve nothing less.”