As the new coronavirus devastates the airline industry, workers at Bay Area airports exposed to health risks are enduring mass layoffs as a potential U.S. travel shutdown looms. At San Francisco International Airport, between 800 and 900 workers soon will be laid off, SEIU United Services Workers West reported. Around 250 airline catering workers were already let go, Unite Here Local 2 Union said.

Some workers are facing homelessness and could lose health care at a critical time, and unions are preparing to fight for compensation as airlines seek bailouts.

After 17 years as a wheelchair assistant at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport, Jerome Perry said he is losing his job this week because of the coronavirus.

“A lot of us here are living from paycheck to paycheck,” Perry said on a press call with his union, SEIU, on Monday. Many of his fellow workers expect to be cut next month and, if the outbreak continues, they will become homeless, said Perry, who once lived on the streets. A diabetic who already lost two toes to the disease, Perry would lose his health care as he loses his job.

“We’ve been on the front line since this virus came out,” Perry said. His employer, G2 Secure Staff, did not respond to request for comment.

Airline employees and contracted airport workers are pushing to make sure that compensation and paid sick leave are prioritized in a multibillion-dollar stimulus bill for airlines being debated this week in Congress. Trade group Airlines for America, which represents national carriers and their 750,000 workers, said in a letter to Congress that “unless worker payroll protection grants are passed immediately, many of us will be forced to take draconian measures such as furloughs.” The letter said airlines already took $30 billion worth of “self-help” measures like voluntary unpaid time off.

Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democrat from Oakland, said that airline workers are making enormous sacrifices.

“You put your lives on the line every day this crisis continues,” Lee said on the Monday call. “By cleaning planes and assisting elderly and disabled passengers, you’re putting yourself at risk of COVID-19, all to ensure that the public has access to the resources that we need, and that’s why it’s critical that any passage Congress advances is centered around workers, not just the executives.”

For those still working, health and safety are paramount. Although travel is down, airports are still running as essential businesses under the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place orders as long as they practice 6 feet of social distancing and sanitation. But workers said it’s hard to stay far apart and clean on the job.

“We have to face a lot of persons outside from everywhere and every country, it’s very dangerous for us,” said Pearl Li, a flight coordinator for airline catering company GateGourmet at SFO for 15 years. Her job is to organize and transport food and beverages on board aircraft and consult with crew members.

Li said GateGourmet provides gloves but not masks. She’s been buying her own — at the cost of $1.50 each — from a friend in China. She wants the company to provide face masks and gloves, although there is a shortage of both supplies for health care workers in the Bay Area, and to connect employees with medical professionals for testing and cover the cost of treatment. She said she can’t afford the company’s health care so she has Covered California, but still worries about out-of-pocket costs.

Li said she is the sole breadwinner in her extended family, which includes her elderly parents and diabetic husband.

“I still have to go to work. Even if I don’t want to go to work, I can’t say no,” she said.

GateGourmet spokeswoman Nancy Jewell said in an email that “safety is our number one priority.”

“In addition to the stringent health and safety practices currently in place, we have implemented additional measures to protect the health and safety of our employees, customers, passengers and general public,” she said. “These measures often are above and beyond applicable regulatory requirements.”

Airline catering union spokesman Ted Waechter said the labor group is actively negotiating with employers to ensure protections for workers still on the job and those who lose income. Even if passenger traffic is halted, he said workers will still be needed for charter and cargo flights.

Federal employees for the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are also at risk while interfacing with the public. A CBP spokesperson said it had provided extensive guidance to all of its employees regarding the potential use of gloves, N95 respirators, eye protection, and disposable outer garments. It also issued instructions for cleaning fingerprint scanners with Centers for Disease Control-approved products.

Other airport work not directly related to travel is also continuing, to the concern of some employees. Under the shelter-in-place orders, airport construction is allowed to still operate. That includes SFO’s huge Harvey Milk Terminal 1 project. Although the opening of the first phase was delayed for at least a month because of the coronavirus, construction is still active.

A contractor on the project, who requested anonymity because he is now employed there, said he was concerned about health and safety for workers numbering between 200 and 800 on the job site at a time. They work in teams. There aren’t enough masks. Security keypads used hundreds of times a day aren’t sanitized enough. Every third person is coughing or sneezing, he said.

The contractor said after the shelter-in-place orders, 1 in 5 workers didn’t return — some he knew because they were frustrated and anxious — and are not getting paid.

“That’s what everyone’s dealing with, on one hand you want to be safe, you look around, everyone at work has family at home that’s sheltering in place, and we’re at work bringing back whatever it is to our families that we don’t know,” he said. “On one hand is income insecurity.”

The engineer’s employer did not respond to request for comment.

A letter sent to SFO contractors clarifying the city’s public health order reinforced the importance of social distancing, hand hygiene guidance, covering coughs and sneezes, and regularly cleaning high-touch surfaces. In terms of job security or paid sick leave for contracted workers, SFO spokesman Doug Yakel said in an email that “each contractor would have to determine this based on applicable labor laws and their own policies.”

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Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench