Fellow furloughees: Help's on the way

[CoopDog]

I assume we'll all be getting some extra 26 weeks of unemployment bennies soon, if you can believe this article below:
(anyone heard differently?)




Reuters
UPDATE - U.S. panel OKs $3.5 billion in airline aid
Friday April 11, 7:57 pm ET
By Susan Cornwell


(Recasts lead, adds airline reaction in paragraphs 17-18 and includes more details throughout)
WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - Congressional negotiators approved a $3.5 billion airline aid package on Friday that would tie assistance to limits on top executives' pay.

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The panel of lawmakers also earmarked $275 million to help jobless aviation industry workers.

"We're trying to restore the vitality to this industry," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, before the voice vote by a House-Senate conference committee.

Details of the plan were cobbled together by lawmakers as part of compromise legislation on Iraq war spending that still must be voted on a final time by members of both chambers. Lawmakers were hoping to pass the bill this week before leaving town for a two-week break.

The money included $2.4 billion in cash reimbursements to airlines for security costs, and a suspension of passenger security fees from June 1 through Sept. 30 of this year, worth another $520 million.

The measure extends government-backed war risk insurance for one year, a provision worth about $600 million in savings to the airlines, House and Senate aides said.

But lawmakers also voted to tie the aid to limits on compensation for the two highest-paid executives at each major airline. They would be limited to their salary levels for 2002 -- not including stocks and stock options.

Executives at airlines that do not have intercontinental service, like low-cost carriers, would be excluded.

Some lawmakers have expressed outrage that airlines have granted multimillion-dollar pay packages to their top executives as they lobbied Congress for help with losses blamed on a plunge in business due to the war in Iraq.

WISCONSIN'S OBEY SEEKS WORKER AID

It was the second major airline aid package since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijack attacks. Immediately after those attacks, Congress approved $15 billion in airline relief.

But this time, lawmakers approved $275 million for jobless aviation industry workers as well, after Rep. Dave Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, warned Congress could not ignore them a second time while rescuing the industry again.

Obey noted that the lawmakers defeated an amendment that would have further restricted airline executive compensation as a condition of government aid.

"If we are going to take such great care of the CEOs of some of these airlines, it seems to me that we can take a little better care of the workers," Obey said.

More than 110,000 airline workers have lost their jobs since the 2001 hijack attacks. The provision will grant them an additional 26 weeks of unemployment benefits.

The measure approved by the negotiators will include workers who supply the airlines, including about 35,000 furloughed employees of Boeing Co.(NYSE:BA - News), the world's No. 1 jet maker.

The amount is short of what the airlines sought as they struggle with a steep travel decline caused by the lingering effects of the hijack attacks, the Iraq war, and the worldwide spread of SARS, the deadly pneumonia-like illness that originated in China.

Airlines were grateful for the help.

"I don't think it's going to make a huge amount of difference," David Neeleman, chief executive of low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways (NasdaqNM:JBLU - News), told Reuters in an interview. "But we're obviously for something that rolls back taxes."

David Castleveter, a spokesman for US Airways (Other OTC:USALA.PK - News), which has just emerged from bankruptcy, said that "Congress is doing the right thing in providing relief for an industry that clearly is suffering from the impact of the war."

CASH IN 30 DAYS

Stevens, the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, said he hoped to get much of the $2.4 billion in reimbursed security costs out to the airlines within 30 days. That amount includes $100 million to pay for installation of stronger cockpit doors.

The rest of the money would be distributed based upon the proportional share of security fees airlines were ordered to pay to the government after the 2001 attacks.

Airlines will also be required to submit a plan showing how they have cut costs by 10 percent since last June, or by the amount of aid they receive, said an aide to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican. (Additional reporting by Julie MacIntosh)

 

[CoopDog]

More info on it

Here's some more airline worker aid info from the Washington Post:


House Backs Aid For Airline Workers
By Martha McNeil Hamilton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 9, 2003; Page E01


Jobless airline workers moved closer to getting some assistance in President Bush's supplemental spending package yesterday when the House of Representatives voted to include workers' aid despite administration entreaties to drop "this objectionable provision."

The House voted 265 to 150 to instruct its conferees to include a Senate provision in the airline aid package that would provide an extra 26 weeks of unemployment insurance for laid-off airline workers, even though the provision was not in its version of the bill.

The airline aid package is part of a larger supplemental spending measure that would provide nearly $80 billion to finance the war with Iraq and to strengthen defenses against terrorism at home. A conference committee is scheduled to meet today to work out differences in the two versions of the bill.

Both the Senate and the House versions of the spending bill include money for the struggling airline industry, which lost $10 billion last year and expects to lose $11 billion this year. The Senate version includes an additional $3.2 billion, including $225 million in expanded jobless benefits for workers. The House version contains an additional $2.7 billion to reimburse airlines for security-related expenditures but does not include any funds for workers.

Airline unions have been lobbying hard for the worker-aid provision, arguing that employees were left behind when Congress approved $15 billion in financial aid and loan guarantees for the airlines shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The union's efforts have gained some support from Republicans, including those whose districts include large concentrations of airline workers. Last week 13 House Republicans, led by Rep. Phil English of Pennsylvania, wrote to House Appropriations Committee conferees urging them to include the jobless benefits in the supplemental war funding bill.

Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., the director of the Office of Management and Budget, yesterday wrote members of Congress outlining the administration's position on several provisions in the overall package, including financial aid to the airlines.

"While the Administration did not request financial assistance for airlines, it recognizes that the war in Iraq may have an impact on the demand for air travel," he wrote. But he added that the amounts of money provided by the House and the Senate "are excessive."

Despite Daniels' objections, the administration has not threatened to veto the bill over the airline provisions. "The V-word was not used in any of their correspondence," said one airline industry source. Several airline and congressional sources said they expect the bill to emerge from the conference possibly with a slight reduction in the dollar amount but containing the benefits for airline workers. They also said they doubted that the administration would allow the airline issue to endanger the larger spending measure.

The crux of the debate within the administration over the airline aid has been between those who are concerned that additional financial aid will only postpone a shakeout in the industry and those who believe financial assistance is warranted to offset the costs of increasing security. The airline industry initially said security measures, such as reinforcing cockpit doors, had cost it an additional $4 billion.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who backed the aid for workers, said yesterday that the unemployment rate for airline workers is about 15 percent, which is nearly three times the national rate.

Noting that there have been 115,000 layoffs in the industry in the last year and a half, including 10,000 since the war in Iraq began, Murray said at a news conference that the extension of benefits is "not a lot of money but it's going to make a real difference in the lives of airline workers who have lost their jobs but still need to pay their mortgages."



© 2003 The Washington Post Company