BODY: STATEMENT BY EDWARD WYTKIND,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TRANSPORTATION TRADES DEPARTMENT, AFL-CIO
BEFORE THE
HOUSE TRANSPORTATION AND
INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION
September 24, 2002
My name is Edward Wytkind.
I am the Executive Director of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO
(TTD). I am pleased to appear before you on behalf of the 35 affiliates
including the member unions of our Aviation Coordinating Committee. [1] Chairman
Mica, Ranking Member Lipinski and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for
allowing us the opportunity to share our views on the state of America's airline
industry.
While I know you will hear a great deal about
the many economic and policy issues that are contributing to this industry's
severely depressed state, I would like to offer the perspective of
transportation labor and specifically the hundreds of thousands of men and women
employed in the aviation industry who form the backbone of air transportation in
this country.
Mr. Chairman, America watched with
disbelief and horror as the events of September 11 played out before our eyes.
For the dedicated workers in this industry, the attacks were especially
horrendous -- for the first time in America's aviation history a domestic air
carrier, our members' workplace, was used to carry out an act of terrorism in
the United States. As you know, 33 pilots and cabin crew members died on-board
the aircraft used as weapons of destruction. Several hundred more union members,
from firefighters and police whose courageous acts still inspire us, to those
who simply went to work that day, perished as well.
Obviously, in the days, weeks and months that followed, the nation's
airline workers -- our members -- knew that air travel in America would never be
the same. We recognized immediately that security would take on significantly
greater importance and that business as usual was going to change. And indeed,
immediately after September 11 our members were the first to bear the brunt of
the economic consequences of this horrendous act of terror. A year later, this
industry has not rebounded and tens of thousands of airline employees are either
laid-off or face the uncertain future of downsized and possibly bankrupt
airlines. In addition, unless Congress extends unemployment benefits before it
adjourns, these laid-off employees will exhaust their benefits and will face a
future with no hope of receiving even the most basic government assistance.
State of Economy and Aviation Industry
At the outset, let me state that no one cares more about the safety and
the economic health of the aviation industry than the employees whose
livelihoods depend on strong airlines. We agree that something must be done to
stabilize this vital sector of our economy. We cannot lose sight of a simple
fact: for airline workers and their families, the survival of this industry
means the ability to pay the mortgage, send the kids to college and protect
retirement security. In this slumping economy, when a worker gets a pink slip,
the economic security that he or she fought so hard to obtain can disappear
without warning and with little recourse. And for the millions of Americans who
rely on air service, we must stop this industry's financial tailspin and do
everything we can to ensure their safety and security.
As we evaluate the state of the airline industry, we must also look to
the continuing weakness of the overall U.S. economy. There are currently more
than 8 million Americans out of work, with 2.8 million workers being jobless for
15 weeks or more. Nearly 430,000 workers ran out of unemployment benefits in
July - - an increase of 67 percent over last year. Unemployed workers today have
the dubious distinction of making the Top 10 list of "worst months" of
unemployment insurance exhaustion since the Department of Labor began tracking
this data three decades ago. There is still no sign of turnaround in the
manufacturing sector -- including aircraft producers such as Boeing -- where
almost 1 million workers have lost their jobs in the last year.
This desperate situation facing working families is what inspires the
labor movement to demand action by Congress and the President to extend
unemployment benefits and to provide assistance to the millions of working men
and women who face a future with little hope of obtaining long-term employment
and with the very real prospect of losing health care insurance. It seems to us
that the greatest economic power in the world should be able to find the
political will and the resources to stop the hemorrhage in our economy and
protect the livelihoods of so many Americans who are suffering.
With that backdrop, one of the hardest hit segments of the economy is
the airline industry. We have all seen the data and it paints a bleak picture
for airlines, their workers, air travelers and the economy. According to the Air
Transport Association, airline industry losses in 2001 were $7.7 billion.
Projected losses in 2002 may again exceed $7 billion and in 2003 the situation
may improve slightly, but in the process service and jobs will be slashed,
aircraft purchases will be deferred and canceled, and travelers will pay the
price with diminished choice, lost frequency and a lower quality of service.
Aviation industry workers, including employees of
airlines, Boeing and aerospace suppliers, and airports, have suffered
unprecedented job loss and economic uncertainty. Some 100,000 airline employees
are out of work or facing imminent lay-off. Another 30,000 Boeing workers are
laid-off along with 51,000 additional aerospace employees. But it is the
multiplier effect of airline lay-offs that is most startling. Airline industry
data show a combined workforce exceeding 600,000. However, the total workforce,
if related job sectors such as airports, aircraft manufacturing and suppliers
are included, totals 10.9 million. In other words, one airline worker translates
into 18 additional jobs in our economy. And with bankruptcies looming large, it
is easy to conclude that the staggering job losses will only grow.
Proposed "Fixes"
Unfortunately,
at a time when this industry needs to collaborate with its employees to reverse
this severe financial downturn, it appears some want to direct attention at
"scapegoat" issues that attach blame for these problems to airline employees and
their collective bargaining rights. As we have demonstrated time and again,
aviation labor is dedicated to preserving the future of this industry but will
oppose those who would have Congress believe that the latest financial crisis
can be "solved" on the backs of airline workers.
As
Congress and this Committee responded to the economic crisis facing the industry
last fall, it enacted a package of economic assistance, supported by TTD, that
included $5 billion in direct assistance and $10 billion in federal loan
guarantees. While the legislation failed to provide relief to jobless airline
and other industry workers as we had insisted, the bill did create a framework
that was expected to give air carriers the chance to recover from the staggering
losses associated with 9/11. Unfortunately, the loan guarantee program,
administered by the newly created Air Transportation Stabilization Board (ATSB),
has not lived up to the expectations of Congress.
The
fact is that nothing in the emergency relief legislation was intended to saddle
applicants with such onerous requirements that would actually deter air carriers
from taking advantage of this important assistance. Moreover, it was not the
intent of Congress to allow the ATSB to exercise such broad powers to directly
intervene in the collective bargaining process in carrying out its
responsibilities.
To this day, one applicant, America
West, has secured a loan guarantee and USAirways' attempts to seek a loan
package met with such resistance from the ATSB that the airline eventually filed
for bankruptcy protection. What is clear is that these two applicants and many
others were subjected to a bureaucratic and unwieldy process as well as grossly
unrealistic demands for employee wage concessions that did not reflect the will
nor the intent of Congress. Clearly, these demands have been designed to erect
obstacles, not "to keep our U.S. air transportation system viable in the short
term" as envisioned by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don
Young when he led the bill's passage on September 21, 2001. The Committee's
Ranking Member, Representative James Oberstar, said on the House floor: "We're
here to put back on its feet an industry that represents 10 percent of our $7
trillion gross domestic product, a $700 billion sector of our economy, one
without which all the rest of our economy fails." In other words, a bipartisan
Congress moved quickly to shore up a vital industry and its workforce and
clearly intended to build a bridge from 9/11 to a day when the industry's
financial fortunes would stabilize. That underlying principle has hardly defined
the ATSB's work to date in processing applications for federal assistance.
There are some policy proposals that should be debated.
The major airlines have offered a number of legislative solutions intended to
relieve them of what they term as "excessive" federal taxes and fees. It is
certainly understandable why the industry's attempts to gain additional economic
relief from the government have drawn criticism from some in Congress,
especially since we continue to witness air carrier inspired legislative attacks
on the rights of airline workers. Our members have grown accustomed to the
airlines' tactic of "blaming someone else" when economic trouble strikes.
Nevertheless, although the dedicated employees of this
industry are weary of these tactics, Congress should consider the industry's
economic relief proposals in the context of finding ways to stabilize the
deteriorating finances of airlines and halt the alarming rate of lay-offs and
furloughs. We agree with the contention that certain costs, such as the
deployment of new security technologies and the staggering price for "war risk" insurance, cannot be financed entirely by the airline
industry and its employees. The fact is that aviation security has become one of
America's top homeland security objectives -- we should consider whether this
industry is being saddled with expenses that should be a federal responsibility.
Congress will, of course, have to ensure that whatever temporary or long-term
relief is afforded to the airlines does not come at the expense of funding
needed for our air traffic control system and airports.
Relief for Workers
Even as Congress and the
President consider providing additional assistance to the airlines, we remain
committed to securing federal assistance for the skyrocketing number of laid-off
workers. One of our most bitter disappointments is the inaction of our
government to help the thousands of aviation industry workers who, through no
fault of their own, lost their jobs following the 9/11 attacks. The same
rationale that led Congress to enact emergency legislation providing $15 billion
in relief for air carriers should have inspired lawmakers to do the right thing
for workers who endured economic hardship of unprecedented proportions.
Unfortunately, despite hollow promises made on the House and Senate floor, to
this day very little has been done to help the jobless in the aviation industry.
This is especially disturbing since it appears that the turnaround we had hoped
for will not materialize anytime soon and at the same time laid-off workers are
bracing for pending bankruptcy reform legislation that would force them to carry
their debts for the rest of their lives.
We will not
rest in our effort to convince Congress to pass an extension in unemployment
insurance and to finally address the fact that too many Americans face a future
without health insurance. To this day, our members wonder why Congress and the
President failed to address the desperate needs of airline workers in their
darkest days -- as the labor movement had advocated when the airline bail-out
bill was pending last fall -- and why now Congress appears poised to leave for
the fall elections without finishing the job. Let it be stated today that
thousands of airline and other workers will exhaust their jobless benefits and
will lose their health insurance in the months between congressional adjournment
and when the 108th Congress convenes.
Security and
Confidence in Air Travel
For airline workers nothing is
more important than the security and safety of the air transportation system --
their workplace. For current employees and future generations of workers in this
industry, the September 11 attacks will serve as a painful reminder of the many
unexpected dangers they face on the job. Both during and following these brutal
attacks, airline workers, air traffic controllers and other government employees
such as FAA technicians and inspectors demonstrated their commitment, courage
and skill. I urge you to consider the contributions of employees, especially the
thousands of workers who reported to work just a few days after 9/11 -- when the
nationwide ground stop was lifted by our government, and to this day staff the
front lines of this nation's dedicated aviation workforce. I also urge you to
ensure that our government and the air carriers listen to the workers in this
industry who can offer hands-on experience in developing and implementing
aviation security measures. That was not the case in the weeks following 9/11,
as a number of proposals, including those geared towards addressing passenger
and cargo security risks in the nation's airports, were developed without the
input of airline employees.
These issues are especially
important because until we answer the typical weary air traveler's questions
about the safety and security of air transportation, the economic state of this
industry will continue to erode. Airline workers know all too well that for our
industry and our nation to rebound and thrive, we must restore faith in the
safety and ease of air transportation in America. In other words, we must not
allow other issues to distract us from our mission: to bring the American
traveler back to the safest airline industry in the world and to demonstrate our
resolve to never again allow acts of terror to be carried out in our air
transportation system.
Congress has a large
responsibility to play as well. We will continue to push for more resources to
ensure the proper deployment of security measures and will join the airlines and
the airports in calling on you to fund more of the extraordinary costs
associated with meeting the nation's airline security needs. We will not,
however, support the unwarranted roll-back of aviation security requirements
simply because of costs; indeed, we will join in making the case for more
federal resources, but we cannot support actions that will ultimately contribute
to air travelers' already shaken confidence. Worker training is especially
important in these times, as training under existing practices and federal
mandates is not and never was geared towards situations such as the 9/11
attacks. We are pleased to see progress in this area but much more can be done
that will contribute greatly to the preparedness of our aviation workforce and,
by extension, to the security of air travel.
We must
also assert our strongly held view that aviation security and workers' rights
are compatible and not conflicting propositions. Federal workers' rights to
collectively bargain and whistleblower protections have unfortunately become one
of the core subjects of disagreement in pending legislation to create a new
cabinet level Department of Homeland Security. This unfair assault on workers'
rights is especially disturbing to transportation labor as no one questioned the
important role in our homeland defense that air traffic controllers and other
FAA employees -- essential members of our federal workforce -- played in
carrying out orders to land almost 5,000 planes in about two hours without
serious incident or mishap. Their dedication and commitment to defending the
security of America was never questioned and we urge Congress to move on with
Homeland Security legislation, leaving the collective bargaining rights of the
new agency's employees intact. Completion of this important legislation will
contribute a great deal to making Americans feel safer and more secure about
flying.
Looking Ahead
Unfortunately, the future of the aviation industry is uncertain at
best. There is no uncertainty, however, about the importance of air
transportation to America. In the weeks and months ahead we will advocate for
policies that reverse the shaken confidence of air travelers. We will insist on
ample federal resources to cover the cost of security. We will join the debate
over the fees and taxes paid by the airlines and consider what costs are
intrinsically linked with defending America's homeland security and thus should
be borne by our government. We will defend the collective bargaining rights of
aviation employees and oppose industry attempts to vilify our members who
struggle to manage through these difficult times. We will urge you to ensure
that all the benefits of the emergency relief legislation enacted last fall are
realized. And we will continue to push Congress and the President to further
extend unemployment benefit for laid-off workers and to consider the millions of
American workers who face the loss of health care coverage in this reeling
economy.
The labor movement is dedicated to stabilizing
the finances of the nation's airlines and securing our airways for the nation's
air travelers and our members. This industry is extremely crucial to our
economy, to every community in America and to millions of working men and
women.
We look forward to working with this committee
and thank you for allowing us the opportunity to share our views.
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