Laid-off Spirit workers could get extended unemployment under proposed bill
Some Wichita lawmakers want to change Kansas law to allow some laid-off workers the chance to apply for unemployment benefits sooner and receive them for longer.
Kansas House Reps. Jim Ward, Elizabeth Bishop and Stephanie Yeager introduced two pieces of legislation — House Bills 2565 and 2566 — aimed at providing relief to families impacted by layoffs at Spirit AeroSystems and other companies due to uncertainty surrounding production of Boeing 737 Max.
One bill would eliminate a one-week waiting period before applying for unemployment benefits for eligible workers. A second bill would extend the length of time people can stay on unemployment from 16 weeks to 26 weeks.
Kansas was already facing a talent shortage when Spirit AeroSystems, Wichita’s largest employer, announced it was laying off 2,800 workers due to a production shutdown of the Boeing 737 MAX.
Spirit makes 70% of the 737 Max, which was grounded worldwide in March after two deadly crashes killed 346 people. More than half Spirit’s revenue comes from the Max program. At the start of the year, Spirit announced it was halting production of the planes and it’s unclear when production will resume.
Additional layoffs are trickling down Boeing’s local supply chain. Spirit has indicated more layoffs could be on their way.
The bills, referred to collectively as the Kansas Workforce Protection Act, is aimed at keeping those laid-off aircraft workers in Kansas.
“Out-of-state competitors have been in Wichita for weeks trying to poach our talented, skilled people to jobs outside of Kansas,” Ward, a Wichita Democrat, said in a news release. “We can’t risk exporting our talent and never getting it back.
“Kansas should stand behind our employees and let them know we’ve got their back until work ramps up,” he said in the release.
If passed, the bills would “provide additional time for employees to bridge the gap until the aviation sector in the state resumes full employment,” according to the release.
“We believe this ... is a reasonable solution to increase aid to Kansans impacted by layoffs,” Bishop, a co-sponsor on the bill, said in the release.
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 4:31 PM.