News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 20, 2001
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

State leaders urge President Bush to include Boeing employees in federal aid package

OLYMPIA – Gov. Gary Locke, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen and state legislative leaders today sent President George W. Bush a letter to express strong bipartisan support for a federal economic-relief package to assist the commercial aviation industry -- including assistance for displaced Boeing employees.

Locke, Owen, Senate Majority Leader Sid Snyder, Senate Minority Leader James West, Co-Speaker Clyde Ballard and Co-Speaker Frank Chopp signed the letter to Bush.

In addition to requesting federal economic aid to displaced workers, the state will provide laid-off Boeing employees with weekly unemployment benefits for up to 30 weeks, training benefits and job search and placement assistance.

The letter to Bush follows.

Dear Mr. President:

Last week’s horrendous terrorist attacks have caused an unprecedented crisis for the U.S. airline industry. The grounding of U.S. air traffic in response to the attacks and the subsequent reduction in commercial air travel have resulted in significantly fewer scheduled flights. Major domestic airlines have announced nearly 100,000 layoffs.

In response to this crisis, Boeing plans to lay off 20,000 to 30,000 employees from its commercial airplane unit by the end of 2002. Most of the job losses will be in the state of Washington. The impacts of such layoffs in the commercial aviation industry will seriously impact our state’s economy as well as the national economy.

We are writing to express our bipartisan support for a federal economic-relief package for the commercial aviation and aerospace industries. We steadfastly believe such an aid package must also include funding to assist laid-off workers from the aviation industry including aircraft manufacturing. We understand Senator Patty Murray is drafting such legislation and we urge your support. In the meantime, we are exploring all possible state actions to assist Boeing workers facing these layoffs.

We also support Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn’s efforts with U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to secure a National Emergency Grant. This grant would assist laid-off Boeing employees by providing funding for job counseling and training, income support during training, relocation allowances, job search and placement and mortgage and rental assistance. We request your strong support.

We appreciate your commitment to resolving this crisis and your attention to our request. We stand united in urging your support for aid to the airline and aircraft-manufacturing industries.

Thank you for your leadership during this challenging period in our nation’s history.

Sincerely,

Gary Locke
Governor

Brad Owen
Lieutenant Governor

Clyde Ballard
Speaker of the House

Frank Chopp
Speaker of the House

Sid Snyder
Senate Majority Leader

Jim West
Senate Republican Leader



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