DieselDragRacer
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More than 1,000 subcontracted airport security officers, baggage handlers and wheelchair attendants at the city's two major airports plan to strike starting Wednesday night, according to the union that seeks to represent them. Officials with Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union said picketing would begin at John F. Kennedy Airport at 10 p.m. Wednesday and at LaGuardia at 6 a.m. Thursday.
"We are here today to tell you that we are going on strike!" LaGuardia worker Chennee Cooper said Tuesday at a news conference at the union's Manhattan offices.
Cooper said she works 40 hours a week but lives in a shelter because she cannot afford an apartment.
"We love doing this," she said. "We don't want to go anywhere, we just want better pay so we can take care of our families."
The employees planning the walkout work for Delta subcontractor Aviation Safeguards. Its parent company, Herndon, Virginia-based Command Services Corp., did not immediately return a call seeking comment about the threatened strike.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports, had no immediate comment.
Workers attending the news conference said they make $10.10 an hour and that they want $15 an hour as well as the right to organize for union representation.
"Where is it acceptable, in these United States of America, in a billion-dollar industry, for a worker to give a company 20 years of service and never have a raise?" JFK security worker Donna Hampton said.
The union says the workers' efforts to organize have been met with strong-arm tactics that constitute unfair labor practices.
Officials with the union say Aviation Safeguards has stopped workers from wearing buttons and threatened to fire them if they strike.
"That is outrageous," union president Hector Figueroa said. "That should not be happening in our airports, that should not be happening in our country."
Several City Council members attended the news conference and promised their support.
"We're hoping that these employers will act in good faith and sit down at the table and negotiate with these workers," Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said.
It was not clear how the planned strike might affect travelers.
The workers potentially involved in the walkout represent a small fraction of the employees at the two airports. The Port Authority says about 37,000 people work at JFK and 11,000 at LaGuardia.
"We are here today to tell you that we are going on strike!" LaGuardia worker Chennee Cooper said Tuesday at a news conference at the union's Manhattan offices.
Cooper said she works 40 hours a week but lives in a shelter because she cannot afford an apartment.
"We love doing this," she said. "We don't want to go anywhere, we just want better pay so we can take care of our families."
The employees planning the walkout work for Delta subcontractor Aviation Safeguards. Its parent company, Herndon, Virginia-based Command Services Corp., did not immediately return a call seeking comment about the threatened strike.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports, had no immediate comment.
Workers attending the news conference said they make $10.10 an hour and that they want $15 an hour as well as the right to organize for union representation.
"Where is it acceptable, in these United States of America, in a billion-dollar industry, for a worker to give a company 20 years of service and never have a raise?" JFK security worker Donna Hampton said.
The union says the workers' efforts to organize have been met with strong-arm tactics that constitute unfair labor practices.
Officials with the union say Aviation Safeguards has stopped workers from wearing buttons and threatened to fire them if they strike.
"That is outrageous," union president Hector Figueroa said. "That should not be happening in our airports, that should not be happening in our country."
Several City Council members attended the news conference and promised their support.
"We're hoping that these employers will act in good faith and sit down at the table and negotiate with these workers," Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said.
It was not clear how the planned strike might affect travelers.
The workers potentially involved in the walkout represent a small fraction of the employees at the two airports. The Port Authority says about 37,000 people work at JFK and 11,000 at LaGuardia.
