Donald Trump ready to take executive action to save airline jobs, says White House
The White House today said that US President Donald Trump was preparing to act unilaterally to prevent a massive wave of job cuts at US airlines that have been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.
According to chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump is considering using an executive order to avoid the layoffs if Congress does not come together to approve a wider rescue package for businesses.
Yesterday American Airlines said that it would have to make 19,000 roles redundant in October unless a new aid package was approved.
Fellow aviation giants United Airlines said that it had sent notices of potential furlough to 36,000 of its staff, while Delta said 2,000 jobs were under threat.
“If Congress is not going to work, this president is going to get to work and solve some problems. So hopefully, we can help out the airlines and keep some of those employees from being furloughed”, Meadows told Politico.
Back in March, US airlines received $25bn from the federal government in order to prop up payrolls through to September, of which American claimed $5.8bn.
However, with the pandemic continuing to weigh down global air travel, talks over a further $25bn in support have stalled in Congress.
Talks between Meadows, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer ended in early August without any agreement on the next steps.
Meadows told Politico that he thought a further aid package would be necessary in order to keep all jobs in place, but warned that he was not optimistic that negotiations would restart soon.