I wrote a piece back in August raising the need for the airline industry, among others, to be taken in to public ownership. The Airline executives and the leaders of the airline unions, particularly the Association of Flight Attendants, are pushing for an extension to the Payroll Support Program (PSP) that expired leading the airline bosses to layoff thousands of workers. The PSP, has kept the workers in employment up until its expiration.
I attended this rally (video) that was held at California Congresswoman Barbara Lee's office in Oakland. As the union officials says, Barbara Lee has been supportive but has "backtracked" a bit by suggesting passing the PSP extension, which would cover workers' wages until the end of March, after the election but the unions want it passed before.
It would seem the time is ripe to raise this demand as workers or the US taxpayer has been paying the wages of these workers so far so why not make the industry public as a first step toward transforming such an important social need as public transportation.
I managed to ask these two officials a question after the Fox News crew and thought it interesting that their answer to this question of public ownership is something they see as something that must originate from the top rather than being pushed from below among the rank and file. Unfortunately, I never said that and part of that is my lack of interview skills but I hope to improve as I go along. It's an interesting insight in to the situation in airlines at the moment.
Here's another very short clip from just before I left.
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