CLEVELAND -- Last month's terrorist attacks hit the airline industry hard, and although a government bailout helped to get the planes back off the ground, laid-off workers were left stranded.

NewsChannel5's Tracy Carloss reports that for one lawmaker, the fight to help workers is personal.

Airlines across the country have been hit hard by a public that is barely flying. Workers, including the ones at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, are getting hit extra hard.

"The airlines got the bailout, and workers were left out," machinists' union member Julie Frietchen said.

The government came to the rescue of the airlines, but so far, there has been no help for airline employees.

"People are the ones earning money for the company," passenger Jeff Kotowski said. "It makes sense to help out the workers to me."

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (pictured, above) is trying to change that.

"There (are) not enough unemployment and health-care services or dollars provided for them," she said.

The fight to protect workers is personal for Tubbs-Jones.

"My father worked right here for 38 years as a sky cap, my sister works for United Airlines in San Francisco, my brother-in-law is a sky cap in San Francisco (and) my niece is a flight attendant for United," she said. "The airline industry is my family."

Tubbs-Jones is heading back to Washington, D.C. and will be in session Tuesday.

The congresswoman said that meetings are taking place across the country in an attempt to put pressure on the House leadership to discuss the issue sooner than later.