Airport workers deserve better wages for keeping us safe

Terror attacks are on everyone’s mind these days, especially for people who travel through or work in our nation’s airports.

This harsh reality was made clear last week when terrorists attacked an airport and subway station in Brussels, killing about three dozen people and injuring hundreds more.

Airport workers are keenly aware of the dangers and risks at airports and do their best to keep airports safe and secure for the millions of passengers who pass through every day.

No matter what their function, all workers at airports could potentially serve as first responders in the case of an emergency and they must be prepared, trained and properly compensated as they keep airports secure.

The attack on Brussels Airport in Zaventem and a 2013 shooting at Los Angeles International Airport are both examples of airport service workers – including baggage handlers, passenger service agents, wheelchair assistants, security officers and others – being the very first responders in emergencies. According to press reports, Brussels baggage handler Alphonse Lyoura pulled seven people to safety. Shortly after the LAX shooting, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti publicly acknowledged the heroic actions of LAX service workers, including one passenger service agent who made the first call to police and stayed at the site while others were fleeing.

While law enforcement secured the terminal, airport workers provided vital assistance to assure the safety and well-being of travelers – guiding them to safer areas of the tarmac, helping disabled passengers requiring wheelchair assistance to evacuate and providing food to children during an all-day lockdown.

Closer to home, cabin cleaners at Newark International Airport are at times responsible for conducting security checks as they clean planes. Workers there say they are required to search under seats and seat cushions and in seat-back pockets for dangerous items. But they say they are often working under conditions that make it difficult for them to do their jobs properly. In some instances they have been expected to work in the planes at night with no lights on, and often do not have enough time to conduct these checks, to the extent that they will sometimes skip security sweeps altogether.

Investment in emergency response training should be accompanied by investment in our airport workforce. Low wages at airports lead to high turnover, which puts workers in danger and undermines safety and quality of service. Recent studies have shown that airport workers who provide critical services such as assisting disabled or special needs passengers, perform security functions and maintain public health standards are too often poorly compensated, receive little training and have few incentives to stay in their jobs over the long term.

Beginning Wednesday night and all day Thursday, thousands of cabin cleaners, ramp workers, baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants, terminal cleaners, security officers, skycaps and passenger service workers at nine airports across the country – including Newark and John F. Kennedy International Airport – will strike in protest of unsafe working conditions and against their employers interfering with their right to join together to demand a minimum hourly wage of $15. They originally planned to strike last week but postponed their actions out of respect for the victims of the terror attacks and to show solidarity with the Brussels airport workers who put their lives on the line to save others.

For more than three years, thousands of airport workers across the country have been demanding better pay, safe working conditions, the right to band together to demand a $15-an-hour minimum wage and for mandatory safety and security training.

Despite raking in $23 billion in profits, the aviation industry continues to drive down wages and quality of service by outsourcing jobs to often irresponsible contractors. As a result, airports have become a locus of low wages, exploitation, unfairness and inequality instead of economic drivers and generators of good jobs. Contracted airport workers are still paid so little that they can’t make ends meet, forcing many to rely on public assistance.

This must end.

The purpose of this strike is to send the message that the workers will not stop until their demands are met – for their benefit and for the safety of all who travel by air.

?Hector Figueroa is president of 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union.