TO:                      Members of the New Jersey General Assembly 

FROM:                Hilary Chebra, Manager, Government Affairs, CCSNJ

RE:                       S989/A2487 (Weinberg/Greenstein/Sweeney/Quijano/Benson/Egan)

DATE:                  March 25, 2021

The Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey (CCSNJ) would like to voice our opposition to S989/A2487 (Weinberg/Greenstein/Sweeney/Quijano/Benson/Egan) the "Healthy Terminals Act”. The CCSNJ is concerned that this bill will place burdensome mandates on an industry that is struggling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As written, this bill requires certain airport and train station workers to be paid certain wage rates and supplemental benefits. Specifically, the bill requires certain workers at the Newark Liberty International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport Train Station to be paid certain wage rates that rise annually over the course of six years, from September 1, 2021 to September 1, 2026.  Additionally, the bill mandates a standard benefits supplement rate and paid leave requirements for covered airport and train station workers.

 The aviation industry has been one of the hardest hit industries during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the need to mitigate the spread of the virus with mandatory travel restrictions. New Jersey has seen a dramatic reduction in commercial flights. In July 2020, New Jersey experienced the deepest year-over-year air service cuts of any state in the country, with scheduled flights down 70 percent. The national average was a decline of 50 percent. With this decline in travel, airlines have suffered.

The rollout of the vaccine brings hope that some industries will be able to return to operations as they were pre-pandemic, however, it will take much longer for the airline industry to recover. It is not likely that the airline industry will return to pre-COVID levels of traffic until 2023. S989/A2487 (Weinberg/Greenstein/Sweeney/Quijano/Benson/Egan) places costly mandates that will only delay the industry’s recovery and increasing the financial burden already created by the pandemic.  A delay in this industry will delay the recovery for the entire state.

The airline industry has been forced to make difficult decisions during the pandemic and the additional costs that are mandated in this bill will only further the exacerbate the economic devastation caused by the pandemic.

It is for these reasons, the CCSNJ respectfully opposes S989/A2487 (Weinberg/Greenstein/Sweeney/Quijano/Benson/Egan)