After airport workers at both JFK and LaGuardia protested against what they said are unfair – and even illegal – working conditions, the Port Authority moved to increase wages for the employees. JFK employee Shareeka Elliott, pictured here, was recently invited to the State of the Union address by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer after he read about her plight making $8 scrubbing floors at JFK during an all-night shift, after which she takes her two daughters to school. File photo
City airport workers found a way this week to turn getting arrested into a positive outcome.
Years of outcry, protests and even civil disobedience paid off Wednesday when Port Authority Director Patrick Foye ordered four major airlines to increase workers’ pay from $9 or less to an immediate $1-an-hour-raise for over 8,00 workers. The decision came days after hundreds of workers and some elected officials were arrested while marching outside of LaGuardia Airport in Queens to demand Martin Luther King Jr. Day be a paid holiday for them.
“Pat Foye’s letter is a promising step forward and marks the first real progress we have made in lifting thousands of contracted airport workers out of poverty,” said Hector Figueroa, president of 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union. “We have gotten to this point due to the courage of the contracted airport workers and their willingness to take action – including being arrested for civil disobedience at LaGuardia Airport on MLK Day along with Rep. Charles Rangel and many others.”
In his letter, Foye directed CEOs of Delta, JetBlue, American Airlines and United Airlines to phase-in wages of $10.10 an hour, recognize MLK Day as a paid holiday and work towards providing an improved wage and benefits package to the thousands of hard-working men and women.
“Providing an improved wage and benefits package to the thousands of hardworking men and women that make our airport systems the largest in the country is something that cannot wait,” Foye wrote.
The deal, Figueroa said, does not include the more than 4,000 workers at Newark Airport, however.
Figueroa said anywhere between 12,000 and 15,000 subcontracted airport service workers were keeping Queens’ John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia afloat and deserved wages they could live on alongside paid sick days and holidays. And though Foye’s letter was welcomed news, the union leader said there was still more ground to make up on the grounds of respect and dignity for workers.
Hundreds of workers and a handful of their elected officials flooded the 94th Street Bridge outside LaGuardia last week in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. with hopes of sending a message that poverty wages will no longer fly. Several workers and politicians were arrested, including Rangel (D-Manhattan) and City Council members Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) and Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica).
“It’s good that someone is finally listening to us and responding,” said Wendy Arellano, a cabin cleaner at LaGuardia Airport. “This is a good plan. It’ll be better when we have good benefits, security and the peace of mind that a good contract gives you. But, for now, getting us up to $10.10 is a real start.”
By Phil Corso
