At the heart of the debate over whether to extend payroll support for U.S. airlines is a fundamental question: are airline workers essential workers?
World’s Most Powerful Flight Attendants Calls Airline Employees “Essential” Workers
Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants, was asked to defend another round of airline bailouts on CNBC’s Squawk Box. Host Andrew Ross Sorkin begins by noting the reasons in-favor of another round of payroll support for U.S. airlines, but then asks, “What I don’t understand is why the taxpayers should be subsidizing the shareholders of these airlines in any way whatsoever.”
Nelson first begins by arguing that the support is for workers and directly supports taxpayers:
“Let’s be clear…This is a payroll pass through. It’s 100% returned to the taxpayers because you have people continuing to pay into the system, contribute to the economy, and we keep service to all of our communities.”
She goes on to insist that the proposed payroll support can only be spent on payroll and benefits and keeps airlines from filing bankruptcy, which hurts everyone.
But does it hurt everyone? We’ll return to that question.
Sorkin expresses his opinion that this idea is fundamentally unfair, nothing that taxpayers are subsidizing hedge fund managers who are making a bet that airlines will be rescued (again) by the government. He notes this is fundamentally unfair and therefore a bad thing.
Nelson pivots back to her constituency, noting any shareholder advantage is tertiary to the airline workers who will keep their jobs and their livelihoods:
“The people I represent are betting on having a job. We’re going to have mass layoffs on October 1st. These are essential workers. It’s not for the airlines, it’s for the workers on the frontlines who deserve to have that protection.”
She also notes, “We as a country need to give more protection to essential workers.”
You can watch the exchange here:
But Are Airlines Essential Workers?
The word “essential” does not have a uniform definition.
Per the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, essential workers are those who “conduct a range of operations and services that are typically essential to continue critical infrastructure operations. Critical infrastructure is a large, umbrella term encompassing sectors from energy to defense to agriculture.” These include:
- medical and healthcare
- telecommunications
- information technology systems
- defense
- food and agriculture
- transportation and logistics
- energy
- water and wastewater
- law enforcement
- public works
Thus, by most definitions airline workers are deemed “essential”. But essential has a broader meaning beyond this pandemic. And perhaps that standard, though nominally persuasive, is simply unworkable on a long-term basis when supply and demand are out of sync.
A well-connected nation and well-connected world is essential. Airlines provide far more than a connection from A to B. They are absolutely essential. But while the airline industry is essential, I have yet to hear a persuasive argument that any airline in particular is essential.
I do not want to any airline to fail, especially if recovery is around the cover, but Sorkin’s objection is hardly unreasonable. In fact, Nelson concedes that this bailout will directly benefit shareholders and hedge fund managers. Isn’t there another way? Airlines have proven over the last few months they have access to private capital. Isn’t it time to use it?
The full list of essential workers is 12 pages long. How can a nation possibly afford to continue to pay these workers during a prolonged recession? And what about the other businesses who may not be deemed “essential” but are certainly essential to the livelihoods of many Americans, mine own included?
CONCLUSION
I want to support airline workers. Heck, I’d like to support all workers. But I don’t have to be an economist to distinguish short-term deficit spending from a pattern of spending that is not only unsustainable, but may actually prolong the pain.
Are airline workers essential? Sure. But is any one worker of any industry essential? That’s a much harder sell.
So if Starbucks runs into issues because of a Black Swan event then taxpayers could equally be on the hook for furloughed baristas. In fact I have more sympathy for Starbucks baristas as they mostly do their job well, with smiles, work hard, and don’t gain senior level pay that is more than many legal professionals make.
Sorry to be cold but this is the most ridiculous thing I have heard so far from the street corner bailout beggars club.
Valid argument.
Didn’t the airlines just get $billions of dollars within the last six months? Why is this government paying the salaries of hundreds of thousands of airline workers – to do what ???….. Stand around looking at one another while the few at the bottom of seniority hustle for fear of being furloughed first when their employers wake up? Must be nice to go to a 40 hour a week job, get paid for the 40 hours and really have enough work to last only ten hours a week if that. If one is really clever they will find a way to knock it down to five hours by slacking or passing the buck to Mr or Ms low seniority. I thought Kirby (for one) says United has to become a smaller airline to survive – translation – they don’t need 90,000 people to run a much smaller airline. At least, he, the greatest airline bean counter that ever existed will probably enforce what he says.
Union or not, if Kirby and all the rest have their way, they will find a way to outsource and really dumb it down to Frontier or Spirit. Your Business Class seats are going to be just another level of coach. RIDICULOUS. Make it smaller, already, and build it back up accordingly, not just pay tens of thousands to show up with nothing to do !
…and no, they’re NOT ESSENTIAL if they are standing around doing nothing or not-enough-work to go around.
Well understandably if you are not a flight attendant you have no idea what you are talking about. First of all we do Not get 40 hours a week , we only have a guarantee of 75 hours a MONTH!!!! We have families to support too! If we could work at home we would!!! Oh, but then who is going to save your a__ if there is an Emergency ?? I am sure people like you who get on one of our flights has no idea that we are there for your safety If that was not the reason, then we would not be needed right now, But, bc of Covid-19 we are making sure that we have limited contact with our passengers , that is why we are not doing any type of food or beverage service , for your safety ! In order NOT to spread the Covid-19 virus ….yes we are standing around right now and hating it bc I would much rather be busy , but we have no choice in the matter, our company is doing whatever is necessary to limit the virus from being spread on our flights.
As for your comments about us being paid to do nothing….how dare you say something you know nothing about! You know all the crap passenger put us through during boarding, we don’t get paid for that, nor do we get paid to preflight your plane before you ever get on the plane to make sure our emergency equipment is in working order …. nor do we get paid showing up 45 minutes prior to passengers even boarding so that we can wipe EVERYTHING DOWN to make sure YOU have a safe, clean , sanitized plane for you to board. We don’t even start getting paid until the door is closed ! Oh and if there is a medical Emergency ….say you have a heart attack on your flight we are trained to save your life!!!! Think about it a nurse or Doctor in an emergency room is getting paid to handle emergencies as they happen, so, according to people like you, I guess they too are just sitting around getting paid to do NOTHING unless they are handling an Emergency ?? We are trained to handle all kinds of emergencies when they happen….. and Any other first responder that handles a medical Emergency, they are being paid to sit around in a fire station to do nothing until an emergency happens , and they continue to get paid while handling the medical Emergency. We stop getting paid after we land at the nearest airport and after the door is open, even though at that point we may have to get YOU off that plane as quickly and safely as possible, and by the way even after we have evacuated that plane , on the ground we still continued to assist you with first aid, shock, and keep you together for your SAFETY!!!! WHAT about the kids you intrust us with bc you can’t fly with them, while we are making sure no child is lost or afraid, and get to their relative safely! How about the disabled passengers , and Elderly passenger that we make sure they are taken care of properly and safely delivered to their connection or loved ones!!! We are constantly making compliance checks FOR YOUR SAFETY, SO, WHILE THE PUBLIC THINKS WE ARE GETTING PAID TO DO NOTHING ….. you need to think again…If you are ever in an Emergency landing, the flight attendants that you think are sitting around getting paid to do nothing , you will be thankful they are there risking their lives to get your ass out of that plane , fight that fire, handle the medical Emergency, Just so that you know , we are the ones who make sure everyone on that plane, even the pilots are safely off that plane !!! We are literally are the LAST ONES OFF THAT PLANE!!!! ( not getting paid cause remember …. the door is open) HOPE THIS ENLIGHTS the public ! We are only Essential if you value your life or the life of your loved ones as they are our priorities while on our planes.
They aren’t getting paid to show up. They are getting paid to sit at home.
Even worse, if that’s true. If someone is sitting home, they should have been furloughed and then collecting UNEMPLOYMENT, like everyone else in this country is doing. Why don’t I appeal to Social Security to pay me more money because I’m in “lockdown” while retired and staying away from shopping malls, airports, visiting relatives and friends, not going to restaurants plus, plus, plus.
Everyone of us is affected one way or the other. What happens when Covid-19 comes back in another wave or something worse comes along?….. we all just sit home and get paid by the government? Isn’t that called welfare? I wonder at what point the government runs out of money?
I agree. They were extended to 10/1 fine, and they were lucky for that, but beyond that is prolonging the inevitable, as unfortunate as it all is.
As a real “essential worker” I would have to say no. I’m on the front lines 5+ days a week with a couple of token “hero bonuses” (that didn’t even approach the risks I’m exposed to…). Transportation of all forms is essential IMO but flying around just for the sake of it makes little sense to me.
No. No they’re not.
Well we going to file for unemployment on October first
And we not going to spend to much money at grocery store we don’t buy to much gas because we don’t go to work
We are not buy anything superfluous
No sale tax for the state and local governments
Thank you guys