Ahead of another potential partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have planned rallies on Wednesday evening at the St. Augustine, Ormond Beach and Maitland offices of U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-FL). The CWA is urging passage of a longterm bill to fund the FAA and hold Mica largely responsible for the earlier shutdown in late July, earlier this year.
“Elected officials and concerned citizens will deliver the message to House Transportation Committee Chairman Mica that another shut down of the FAA will not fly,” a statement from the CWA said. “It is beyond time to finalize a long-term FAA Reauthorization bill that improves our aviation infrastructure, grows our economy, delivers hundreds of thousands of new jobs and keeps elections fair for air and rail employees. Americans want jobs, not political games.”
Last week, Mica was picketed in Houston by union workers when he attended a transportation lobbyist fundraiser.
During the previous impasse which ended in early August, about 4,000 FAA employees were out of their jobs, going without pay, and another 70,000 construction employees stopped working. The deadlock was broken when a short-term agreement was reached between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, but that runs out on September 16.
A major sticking point which has prevented passage of the FAA spending extension bill through Congress is the introduction of a rule by Republicans, aimed at rolling back efforts of airline workers to unionize.
Mica said in an interview published today in the Daytona Beach News-Journal that he’s open to meeting Democrats part way.
“At some point, in the national interest, somebody has to say, ‘Whoa, we’ve got to pass a long-term bill,'” Mica said in the interview. “I’ll find any means I can to move the process forward. I’m not trying to put people out of work. I’ll compromise in a reasonable fashion,” the News Service of Florida reports.
