The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today demanded that Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways, who received taxpayer funded federal funds, reverse course and restore airline workers pay.
“The
payroll support component for air carriers in the CARES Act requires that
taxpayer-funded grant dollars be used to maintain the pay and benefits of the
dedicated JetBlue and Delta workers who have made your airlines successful and
who are risking their lives every day by providing essential services to the
American public,” said IAM District 141 and 142 Presidents Mike Klemm and Dave
Supplee in a letter to the two airlines’ CEOs. “It is our understanding that
tens of thousands of Delta and JetBlue workers have taken unpaid voluntary
leaves in order to aid the carriers in reducing labor costs, yet you have
implemented unconscionable policies to reduce the pay of those workers that
remain. At Delta, thousands of workers are being forced to work less hours per
week without pay […] At JetBlue workers have been forced to take 24 days of
unpaid leave from now until September 30, 2020. The grant money that you
demanded and received was calculated using these workers’ compensation and is
meant to maintain their salaries and benefits through this crisis.”
Both Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways
applied for and received direct, taxpayer funded federal grants under the CARES
Act. As a condition of taking the direct grant federal funds, air carriers are
prohibited from cutting airline workers pay and benefits and from laying off
workers until September 30, 2020.
“Hundreds of thousands of IAM members in every sector of our union proudly called elected officials and demanded action to protect the industries in which we work,” continued Klemm and Supplee. “Now, opportunist corporate actors such as yourselves are using that good faith support of airline workers around the country and at every carrier to screw your own workforces and greedily undermine the intent of the federal stimulus funds that you demanded.”
The entire letter is available HERE. The IAM is the world’s largest airline union and represents over 600,000 members. More information about the IAM and our campaigns to organize Delta and JetBlue workers is available at www.iamdelta.net, www.iamjetblue.com and IAMDeltaworkersunite.
