LOS ANGELES, CA, Aug. 28, 2008 – Airline service workers representing the 2,500 employees who provide services from ‘curb to cabin’ at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) are walking off the job at 1:30 P.M. today in response to contractors’ civil rights abuses and failure to bargain in good faith. Service contractors who provide cleaning, security, wheelchair assistance, and baggage handling services for airlines at LAX have refused to provide the quality jobs with access to affordable health care needed to ensure the highest quality services and security for airline passengers. At a bargaining session today near LAX, the companies—G2 Secure Staff, Air Serv, Aviation Safeguards, and Aero Port Services again refused to make a proposal to the workers about improvements in training or wage and benefit increases, despite months of negotiations and the presence of a federal mediator at this week’s talks. In the last several weeks workers also have begun reporting incidents of threats and harassment by their supervisors on the job over their support for the union.
“No one wants to have to strike, but they have given us no other choice,” says Jose Hernandez, a wheelchair assistance
worker with Aero Port Services and member of the airport workers’ bargaining committee. “We’re proud to take care of
the passengers who need it most—but we also need to be able to take care of our families. Good jobs and good service for
passengers go hand in hand.”
More than 2,500 airport workers at LAX who provide services for major airlines including United, American, and Southwest Airlines are paid an average of only $10.50/hour or $19,000 per year—far short of the $54,000 per year the Economic Policy Institute reports it would take to support a family of four in California. In addition, a recent survey by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) found fully three-quarters of wheelchair attendants reported problems with broken or malfunctioning wheelchairs and another third reported witnessing a passenger being endangered due to equipment problems or inadequate staff training.
On August 20, airport workers—who provide services at LAX including security at terminals, gates, and cargo facilities, wheelchair assistance, janitorial services in aircraft cabins and terminals, and SkyCap and baggage handling services—overwhelmingly voted to authorize their bargaining committee to call a strike at any time. For months, workers, passengers rights advocates, and faith and community leaders have been calling for improved training, more adequate equipment, and wage and benefit increases that would stem turnover rates among airline service workers currently as high as 50 percent annually.
Despite raising ticket prices by an average of $200 this year and instituting a range of new fees, airlines have so far been unwilling to support improvements for workers that would cost less than 25 cents per ticket. Meanwhile JD Power and Associates has reported customer satisfaction in the airline industry at a three year low and argues, “In this unstable industry environment, it is critical that airlines invest in their employees as a means to enhance the customer experience, as there is a strong connection between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.”
“These companies have a responsibility to invest in good jobs for workers—we’re the key to the good services and security passengers count on,” said passenger assistant and bargaining committee member Fanny Fuentes, who works for Southwest Airlines via Aviation Safeguards. “It’s the right thing to do for the whole industry.”
Visit www.seiu-usww.org for more information. Sign-up for Twitter Updates at: twitter.com/airportworkers
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Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877 is part of SEIU United Service Workers West, representing more than 40,000 janitors, security officers, airport service workers, and other property service workers across California. SEIU is the fastest growing labor union in the Americas with more than 2 million members.