We Did It: PSP Extended
December 21, 2020
We did it! On the shortest day of the year, we achieved what many thought was the longest shot in Washington. The House of Representatives just voted with 359-53 to approve 4 month emergency relief, including an extension to our Payroll Support Program through March 31, 2021. The Senate is expected to pass the bill later tonight. Extending the Payroll Support Program helps every Flight Attendant and aviation worker no matter your current status. It gives us a solid foundation to fight forward in the New Year.
This wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible solidarity of Flight Attendants, our entire union, and industry. AFA Flight Attendants made over 43,000 calls, sent nearly 100,000 letters, and held 32 #ReliefNow events in 24 cities driving more than a thousand stories - from national networks to local TV and radio, documentaries, digital and print - on our demands for relief for all working Americans. PSP is a #WorkersFirst relief program and demonstrates why it’s so important that unions continue to fight for a recovery that puts real people first. Our efforts won desperately needed emergency relief for tens of millions of Americans.
Aviation is safe when we fly with the spirit that ‘we’re all in this together.’ Our AFA Government Affairs activists never stopped fighting and were joined by thousands of new Flight Attendant activists who got involved in our union to make this possible. While we are getting everyone back on payroll, connected to healthcare and help to the whole country, this is just a downpayment on what’s needed for recovery. We need everyone ready to fight forward.
Know that you made a difference for yourself, your flying partners, and your communities.
The full bill includes $15 Billion for our Payroll Support Program (PSP), along with other provisions for Flight Attendants and our families:
Recalls everyone with no interruption to seniority - all rights and protections from Oct 1 as if never furloughed.
Ensures pay and benefits December 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021 with no furloughs, no reduction to hourly rates.
Restores service to communities and supports vaccine distribution.
Extends the cap on executive compensation and ban on stock buybacks.
$600 direct payment to Americans who earned up to $75,000 in 2019 ($1,200 for couples making up to $150,000 in 2019). $600 per child with no cap on # of children/dependents.
The size of the benefit would be reduced for those earning more than $75,000, or $150,000 per married couple. The amount will decrease by $5 for every $100 of income above those thresholds, phasing out entirely at $87,000 for individuals and $174,000 for couples.
Unemployment Insurance is $300 a week on top of state UI levels.
11 weeks of UI extended for the long-term unemployed
There is much more in the full bill including banning evictions, aid for our schools and public services and support for mass transit. Much more will be needed for a full recovery in the New Year.
Here’s a brief Q&A to answer some initial questions about what this means for Flight Attendants.
As AFA leaders at each airline - Master Executive Councils (MECs) - work with our airlines to get Flight Attendants back on the line, recognize that this process is unprecedented and we will need to work through logistics and issues together. Most contracts do not and could not have contemplated this scenario, which is why we told Congress this should have been done in August. Stay closely tuned to union communications specifically from your MECs and locals, and make sure your contact information is up to date with AFA and your airline.
This would not have been possible without extraordinary champions in Chairman Peter DeFazio and Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS), along with Ranking Members Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Representative Sam Graves (R-MO), who reflected the near unanimous bipartisan support for continuing our jobs and infrastructure program. These leaders and their staff never gave up on aviation workers. Now airlines can return people to work and get them paid as we put the pieces back together with training required for recertification and security clearance.
We are still in the middle of the worst crisis this country has faced in 100 years with 195,00 cases, and 1,618 deaths recorded yesterday. At the same time, TSA screened 1,064,629 people at airport checkpoints nationwide yesterday, Sunday, Dec. 20. It was the third consecutive day that checkpoint volume surpassed 1 million since the pandemic began.
Our industry cannot begin to fully recover until we get the pandemic under control. AFA has worked with airlines over the last nine months to establish COVID-19 operational policies and procedures due to the federal government’s inaction. With cases high across the country, now is not the time to let our guard down. Read our latest Operational COVID-19 Recommendations >
We are also advocating as part of an industry coalition to have airline workers prioritized in the vaccine distribution. This week, the coalition sent letters to all 50 state governors. Here’s an example of the letter >
There will be much more to communicate in the coming days. Today, PSP is finally extended. Stand strong together, always.
In Solidarity,
Sara Nelson
AFA International President
Tell Secretary Mnuchin: You Can't Leverage People!
The grants in the relief package provide paychecks for workers, not bailouts for airlines. These grants do one thing and one thing only: fund paychecks and benefits for two million hourly workers like flight attendants, pilots, gate agents, mechanics, the people who clean planes, cook the food, and help people through the airport.
Secretary Mnuchin is threatening to take equity on the grants -- leveraging the very people who make aviation fly and who right now are on the frontlines of this pandemic. Congress did not intend for this to work this way. The payroll grants are intended to keep us out of the unemployment line. The return to taxpayers is no involuntary furloughs or layoffs, keeping our vital industry intact for essential service during this national emergency, and our ability to continue to pay taxes, be consumers, and take care of ourselves and our families during this crisis. Warrants make sense on the loans, they do not make sense on the grants that are designated for our paychecks.
You can't leverage people. We're the ones the CARES Act is supposed to protect. This is our money, but the Secretary is planning to make conditions so onerous that the airlines can't take it. That will mean hundreds of thousands of jobs lost and bankruptcies all over again. Not this time! This isn't right. We are asking President Trump to make sure the Treasury Secretary doesn't dismantle the bipartisan agreement to keep us in our jobs, connected to our paychecks and healthcare.
FlightPAC
FlightPAC is the Association of Flight Attendants Political Action Committee (PAC). Through voluntary contributions of eligible AFA members, FlightPAC gives support to candidates to federal office who are committed to helping improve flight attendant safety, security and health..
Through the work of the Government Affairs Department, the Legislative Affairs/FlightPAC Committee and FlightPAC contributions, AFA has been able to forge many important relationships with Members of Congress and especially Congress members who serve on the Transportation Committees in the House and the Senate. It is through these relationships that we are able to have legislation introduced on behalf of AFA.
FlightPAC is non-partisan and independent
FlightPAC offers strength in numbers.
If you do not currently contribute to FlightPAC and would like to learn how to do so, please contact your Local Government Affairs Committee, or download a payroll deduction form by clicking the Contribute Now button and return it to a committee member, drop off at your Local Council Mailbox in the crewroom or mail your completed form to the address below:
FlightPAC
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO
501 Third Street, NW
10th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
WE DID IT!!!Congress Passes 10 Hours Rest, FAA Reauth Bill
House 298-23 Senate 93-6
October 3, 2018
WE DID IT! Today, the Senate voted bipartisan and overwhelmingly to pass the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. The bill is now approved by both chambers of Congress and will go to the President's desk for signing before the October 7, 2018 deadline.
Tens of thousands of Flight Attendants from across the industry including Frontier, Miami Air, Alaska, Spirit, Hawaiian, Envoy, Endeavor, United, American, Southwest – Flight Attendants from 35 airlines in all – have called your members of Congress, signed petitions, sent postcards, rallied at the Capitol, and told your stories to achieve minimum rest equal with the flight deck and a Fatigue Risk Management Plan (FRMP). Before that, many of you took part in fatigue studies that provided the science to back up our demand for more rest. This was a fight for safety, health, and equality.
We achieved overwhelming bipartisan support for our Rest and we especially thank our Congressional champions on 10 hours minimum rest:
House - Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA), Rep. John Katko (R-NY), Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL), Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), Rep. Michael Bost (R-IL), Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-MI), Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Rep. David McKinley (R-WV), and Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL).
Senate - Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) originally introduced the language when she was in the House and continued advocacy in the Senate. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) have all since worked hard to ensure the rest language would be included in a final FAA bill. We thank Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) for weighing in when it especially counted to help us get our rest.
For the People Act of 2019
03/08/2019-11:23am
On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 234 - 193 (Roll no. 118).
Action By: House of Representatives
03/08/2019-11:23amMotion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
Action By: House of Representatives
This bill addresses voter access, election integrity, election security, political spending, and ethics for the three branches of government.
Specifically, the bill expands voter registration and voting access, makes Election Day a federal holiday, and limits removing voters from voter rolls.
The bill provides for states to establish independent, nonpartisan redistricting commissions.
The bill also sets forth provisions related to election security, including sharing intelligence information with state election officials, protecting the security of the voter rolls, supporting states in securing their election systems, developing a national strategy to protect the security and integrity of U.S. democratic institutions, establishing in the legislative branch the National Commission to Protect United States Democratic Institutions, and other provisions to improve the cybersecurity of election systems.
This bill addresses campaign spending, including by expanding the ban on foreign nationals contributing to or spending on elections; expanding disclosure rules pertaining to organizations spending money during elections, campaign advertisements, and online platforms; and revising disclaimer requirements for political advertising.
This bill establishes an alternative campaign funding system for certain federal offices. The system involves federal matching of small contributions for qualified candidates.
This bill sets forth provisions related to ethics in all three branches of government. Specifically, the bill requires a code of ethics for federal judges and justices, prohibits Members of the House from serving on the board of a for-profit entity, expands enforcement of regulations governing foreign agents, and establishes additional conflict-of-interest and ethics provisions for federal employees and the White House.
The bill also requires candidates for President and Vice President to submit 10 years of tax returns.
Summary of AFA safety priorities included in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018:
Cabin Cyber Security Vulnerabilities
10-hours Minimum Rest and a FRMP for Flight Attendants
No Knives on Planes Ever Again
Ban of Voice Calls on Planes
Emotional Support and Service Animal Standards
Air Quality: Technologies to Combat Contaminated Bleed Air
Protect Customer Service Agents from Assaults
Secondary Cockpit Barriers
Safe Transport of Lithium Batteries
Study on Cabin Evacuation Certification (including cabin configuration)
Increase Civil Penalties for Crew Interference from $25,000 to $35,000
Banning Electronic Cigarette Smoking on Planes
Congressional Focus on Addressing Sexual Misconduct on Planes
Establish National Inflight Sexual Misconduct Task Force
Require DOJ to Establish Reporting Process for Sexual Misconduct
TSA Authorization
Continue Crewmember Self-Defense Training
Expanded Human Trafficking Training for Airline Personnel
Prioritize Support for Flight Attendant Drug and Alcohol Program (FADAP)
Requiring Privacy for Nursing in the Airport
Evaluation and Update of Emergency Medical Kit Contents
Oxygen Mask Design Study
Develop Guidance for Non-Toxic Prevention of Transporting Insects
Exit Row Evaluation and Verification
Improve Consumer Notification of Insecticide Use
Promoting Women in Aviation
NTSB Reauthorization
Authorization of Essential Air Service
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