Between successful unionization efforts at Amazon warehouses and Senator Bernie Sanders subpoenaing Starbucks CEO Howard Schlutz over alleged federal labor law violations and, Saturday Night Live post-production editors authorizing a strike next month, it's been a busy period for the labor movement.
That doesn’t seem likely to ease off anytime soon, as airport service workers joined union leaders, as well as Senator Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Representative Jesús “Chuy” García D-Ill., for a press conference on Capitol Hill to reintroduce the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act (GJGA).
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During the press conference this week, workers organizing with SEIU, CWA and UNITE HERE shared their stories and pushed for increases in wages and benefits.
“Airport service workers like me are fired up today to demand a fair shot at a good life, with fair wages and real benefits like affordable healthcare, paid leave and protections at work,” Rio Bryant, a wheelchair attendant at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, told the crowd during a live streamed press conference on Capitol Hill. “The great news is this is possible. Now, we need Congress to reject the system that is failing all of us and stand with working people by passing the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act.”
The bill was first announced last year, but didn’t gain any traction. It was reintroduced as the House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee convened Thursday to explore issues in the aviation industry.
What’s In The Act?
Advocates for the act, as explained by Axios, say “that since airports and airlines get billions of dollars of funding from the federal government, service workers in the sector should benefit from labor protections, as other similarly situated workers do.”
Last year’s infrastructure bill requires that any construction workers who build, fix or improve the airports benefit from these standards, but airport service workers do not.
In particular, advocates say that airlines have pushed back on efforts to provide benefits like paid sick leave or healthcare to airport service workers. “As a result, travelers and airport service workers alike have been left to contend with an industry-wide crisis, where flight cancellations, system-wide outages and broader travel chaos have become the norm,” said the Service Employees International Union in a statement.
Additionally, advocates contend that airport service workers are underpaid compared to other service industry jobs. Axios reports that airport service workers earned an average of $14.40 an hour in 2021, per the BLS. That's lower than attendants on buses ($15.71) or on ships ($16.01).
