After nearly four years of fighting for higher wages and better working conditions at Chicago’s airports, recently unionized baggage handlers, cabin cleaners, wheelchair attendants and other low-wage airport workers have their first collective bargaining agreements.
Some 2,200 workers at O’Hare International Airport and Midway Airport overwhelmingly ratified three-year contracts with airline subcontractors Prospect Airport Services and Scrub that provide for bigger annual raises, more affordable health insurance, a grievance process, vacation time and time-and-a-half pay on five additional holidays, said Izabela Miltko-Ivkovich, spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union Local 1.
