5.27.21 – ACTION ALERT! Include RLA Workers in the Illinois Sick Leave Act

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

ACTION ALERT! SB 645
Include RLA Workers in the Illinois Sick Leave Act

Members of APFA, AFA-CWA, and TWU Local 556 are in Springfield, IL, this week to lobby state representatives on SB 645. We need your help, too! Representatives need to hear that their constituents care about this issue to be willing to become a bill co-sponsor. Can you take three minutes to call your Representative right now?

Click here to call your State Representative, and tell them to support SB 645.

APFA ORD Flight Attendants Becky Lydecker, Justin Patterson, Stacy Yoshimura, and Monica Montoya are busy in Springfield meeting with state representatives this week. They need our support. Flood these offices with calls and help them elevate this issue.

The Illinois Sick Leave Act allows workers to utilize earned sick time to care for a family member or committed partner without loss of income. This legislation specifically excluded workers under Title II of the RLA – which means Flight Attendants and other aviation workers cannot use the Illinois Sick Leave Act. Fortunately, Senate Bill (SB) 645 will correct this oversight so that working families, including Flight Attendants and aviation workers, are included and protected by the Illinois Sick Leave Act.

Call your State Representative, and tell them to support SB 645, so Flight Attendants and other aviation workers are included and protected by the Illinois Sick Leave Act!

AND

Click to Tweet at Illinois Speaker Welch

More background info:

• The Illinois Sick Leave Act (Public Act 99-0841) is the Act that allows Illinois employees to utilize earned sick time for the care of a family member or committed partner without loss of income. It was enacted January 1, 2017.
• Amendment 820 ILCS 191-21 was enacted January 13, 2017, which excluded all employees of aviation carriers and rail from the Illinois Sick Leave Act. The justification given involved the need to exclude those under the Railway Labor Act of 1936 to be in parity with Federal laws.
• We believe this exclusion was done in error and seek to correct this by legislation that will place Illinois employees in parity with those of fourteen other states that have enacted similar legislation without targeting the aviation and rail industries for exclusion.
• The intent of the Act was to support working families, yet employees in these two industries are denied this important benefit.
• This bill will not increase costs to airline/rail or grant workers any additional sick leave. It would simply give workers the ability to designate their earned sick time for either their personal illness or for a covered family member.
• SB 645 will remedy the unfair exclusion of airline and rail workers from the Paid Sick Leave Act and restore fairness to this important law.

In Solidarity,

Susan Wroble
APFA ORD Base President
[email protected]

Dray Howard
APFA ORD Base Vice President
[email protected]

Allie Malis
APFA Government Affairs Representative
[email protected]

Lori Glattly
APFA Government Affairs Representative
[email protected]