Originally Posted by
iahflyr
Unemployment would need to be paying 100k, 200k, 300k a year salaries. Airline employees are making way more staying on payroll than they would be getting unemployment. Also, it’s likely that many airline employees will end up being furloughed longer than the maximum amount of time that you are eligible to receive unemployment benefits, so it may not save the government anything in the end.
It seems insane that roughly 1/3 of the country is going to be unemployed, but airlines got a special carve out to keep their employees paid at a much higher rate.
The most fair thing would have been to let airlines furlough as necessary but keep a certain minimum service amount. The furloughed employees would be eligible for the same unemployment benefits that everyone else is getting.
I’m not complaining. It’s probably the only reason I’m not furloughed right now. But the fact that we got a string that requires airlines to not furlough through Sept 30th is quite the coup.
I think the legislation was crafted in the hope that this can be turned before the end of summer, and therefore they wanted the airlines staffed and ready to pick back up and help drive the economic recovery. That and the thought that the government’s actions largely shut us down, and not failings of our own.
Otherwise let us all declare bankruptcy, furlough, collect unemployment and be done with it.