by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:45 AM ET, Mon November 25, 2024
Airport service workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina are striking on Monday, November 25, just as a record number of Americans are expected to travel for the upcoming holidays, citing poverty wages and unfair labor practices as the main drivers.?
The strike, headed by the Service Employees International Union, Workers United and the Union of Southern Service Workers, says workers employed by American Airlines contractors, ABM and Prospect are those striking. Their jobs at the airport? Everyone from ramp workers to wheelchair attendants.?
The strike will include a picket line at the airport, a worker rally and a Strikesgiving meal at a nearby Residence Inn hotela meal that many of the airport workers won't be able to afford for their own families, the union noted.
According to the union, the workers are paid so little they struggle to afford housing: Some have become homeless, sleep in their cars, or cram their families into rented rooms, while others face the looming threat of eviction. The union noted that airport service workers have been paid at near-poverty levels for the past 20 years.?
While a living wage for a single individual in Charlotte is $23.26 an hour, most airport service workers at the Charlotte airport earn between $12.50 and $19 an hour. A recent survey found that 40 percent of the contracted workers at the airport are housing insecure, and 55 percent have struggled to pay for utilities or have slept outside their homes over the past year due to housing insecurity.?
I love talking to the passengers I help get home for the holidays, but it's hard when my only affordable option for a home is a storage unit, said Timothy Lowe II, a Prospect wheelchair agent. I am one of the workers that is the heart and soul of travel by getting people who need wheelchair service to their destination, but I need to be paid enough to afford an apartment and not have to rely on tips from passengers with disabilities.
Service workers walked off during the beginning of their shifts, with members of Workers United, the Union of Southern Service Workers and allies joining in for the rally, despite Prospect sending a letter of intimidation to wheelchair agents threatening to fire them should they strike.?
Charlotte Douglas International Airport is expecting 1 million travelers this week. Important services ranging from clean bathrooms and American Airlines aircraft to assistance for travelers with mobility issues will be impacted by the strike.?
We got an eviction notice that we have to be out by midnight on Tuesday, says Laura Kelly, a Prospect wheelchair agent. I understand that passengers are worried that they may not be able to make it home for the holidays. But I have to worry that my family wont even have a home this Thanksgiving. We dont want to go on strike, however, my family deserves a safe place to lay their heads at night. Instead of Prospect threatening to fire us, they should give us what we deserve so we can keep a roof over our heads.
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