Bob Filner: “We do have a national emergency. We do have an industry that we need to be working in America. But those emergencies…”

“We do have a national emergency. We do have an industry that we need to be working in America. But those emergencies should not be an excuse to stampede the democratic process, to rush through a bill which has not been considered duly, prohibits amendments, prohibits the process from taking place. I object to a process when we do have the time. The markets will not open until Monday morning. We have time to look at this. As John Sweeney says, who is the president of the AFL-CIO, "If Members of Congress fail to include relief to workers in the airline bailout bill, it will be an unconscionable, divisive and economically irresponsible omission." He writes, "Over the past ten days, our Nation has been reminded again and again by the grim and inspiring images of rescue and relief workers that it is working people who are the first to step up to respond to their neighbors, their community and their country. And it is workers and their families who are taking a direct and immediate hit from the terrorist attacks and the resulting airline crisis. A hit that will have a rippling, destabilizing effect on the economy unless it is addressed. "Over the past week, the AFL-CIO, airline unions and congressional leaders have invested a huge amount of work into developing a worker relief package that includes unemployment, job training and health benefit protections to workers laid off as a result of the financial crisis in the airline industry.”