You can add airport workers to the list of service employees fighting for a “living wage.”
At 10 of the country’s largest airports, 40,000 baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants, cabin cleaners and other workers will show solidarity with fast-food workers Thursday in the “Fight for $15” and union rights. Workers from major airports in New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Minneapolis, Oakland, Fort Lauderdale, Seattle and Atlanta will join the fight in their first national action.
“Like many other airport workers, I make only minimum wage with no benefits,” said Abera Siyoum, a disability cart driver at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, in a statement. “When I look at the fight of fast-food workers, I see my fight. We live in the same community and suffer the same problems, and that’s why we’re all fighting to make a change.”
Workers this week sent a letter to the CEOs of America’s six largest airlines, asking them to partner with airports that are attempting to raise wages.
“As airport workers, we have pledged to stand together with people who work in home care and fast food to fight for $15 an hour,” the letter reads.
The fast-food strikes come a week after Walmart workers led nationwide Black Friday strikes to protest the company’s illegal threats against workers who want to organize. Airport workers in Washington State have already played a role in leading the fight for $15 in SeaTac, the area that surrounds Seattle’s airport, and made the city one of the first in the country to pass a $15 an hour city minimum wage law.
Thursday also marks the two-year anniversary the Fight for $15 Movement that’s been credited with raising the public conscious about wealth inequality in America. The fast-food worker movement has earned praise from President Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and other elected officials.