NEARLY 600 TO BE DROPPED FROM RECALL LISTS!

MASSIVE EFFORTS EXPAND FOR RECALL EXTENSION, AS HUNDREDS MORE DROP OFF RECALL LISTS IN THE NEXT TEN DAYS!

Unions and the public support McCaskill proposal to extend recall rights of airline workers.

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An online petition to the U.S. Congress has collected more than 11,400 signatures in support of the legislation. To sign the petition, PLEASE VISIT: www.petitiononline.com/911AID/petition.html

Washington - Support is growing in organized labor for a bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) that would extend the recall rights of airline workers laid off in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The proposal Senate Bill 1992 would extend recall rights of airline workers to 10 years if the air carrier received more than $100 million after the attacks or future government bailouts. Former TWA flight attendants are elated with the legislation because more than 1,000 of them have been terminated from the recall list and thousands more will be receiving their termination letters between now and July 2008 from American Airlines, which bought Trans World Airlines in 2001.

Former TWA attendants have been campaigning since June 2006 to have their recall rights extended because of the extenuating circumstances of 9/11. “We should not be allowed to become the collateral damage of 9/11 or corporate greed,” said longtime attendant Toni Delia. “American Airlines has the ability to sign a letter of agreement with the Flight Attendants union to extend the recall rights,“ Delia said. “They have already gotten a government bailout and wage concessions and have saved millions since the terminations began, while the executives collected million-dollar bonuses. “Now they have the audacity to want something in exchange for extending the recall rights,“ she said.

After 9/11, thousands of airline workers were laid off and a proportionate number have been terminated from the recall list, with more to follow. Without the McCaskill proposal, industry veterans will be terminated from their jobs placing their pension, insurance and benefits in peril. “The taxpayer has bailed out this industry, and airline executives are collecting multi-million dollar bonuses as workers are being terminated from the recall list,“ said industry veteran Roger Graham. “It is time for Congress to take a stand.“

McCaskill's bill has the support of unions representing almost 4 million members. The unions, the Association of Flight Attendants, Association of Professional Flight Attendants, Communication Workers, Teamsters, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Jobs with Justice, Sheet Metal Workers Local 36, Transport Workers Local 530, Central Trades and Labor Council, Greater St. Louis Labor Council and the Uniform Fire Fighters Association of Greater New York.

“Prior to 9/11, five-year recall rights were considered the norm and acceptable within the airline industry,“ Graham said. “However, in a post-9/11 era, they are not. America is only as strong as its ability to preserve jobs.”