Washington, D.C. –Contracted service workers at Dulles International Airport will announce Monday their decision to authorize hundreds of workers to walk off the job on strike if necessary, during the holiday season to demand that their employer, Huntleigh USA Corporation participate in a fair recognition process that allows workers to exercise their legal right to join a union. On Monday at 2 p.m., Huntleigh workers and supporters will gather for a large rally to announce the strike vote results.
This would be the third time workers have gone on strike against the Irving, Texas- based company. Huntleigh workers have walked off the job on strike twice at both Reagan National and Dulles Airports to protest federal labor violations charged against their employer and to protest Huntleigh’s poverty wages. The predominantly immigrant workforce is entering their third year of a campaign for $15 an hour and a union, despite a hostile political environment under President Trump.
Although it admitted no wrong doing, the Huntleigh USA Corporation has settled a National Labor Relations Board Complaint, after 32BJ filed charges with the NLRB alleging that Huntleigh fired a wheelchair attendant in retaliation for her participation in a 2016 strike to protest the company’s poverty wages. After nearly five months without a paycheck, Dulles International Airport, Swartha Tujare, 67-year old immigrant has finally won her job back as a wheelchair attendant after her unlawful firing, as well as thousands in back-pay and interest from December of 2016.
On April 9 of this year, contracted workers at Reagan National and Dulles International Airports, including Huntleigh employees, who earn as little as little as $6.15 per hour plus unreliable tips celebrated passage of a first-of-a-kind Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority policy, ensuring contractors pay their employees a living wage. After a two-year campaign, contracted wheelchair agents, checkpoint agents, terminal cleaners, cabin cleaners, sky caps and baggage handlers will see hourly wages increase to $12.75. Around 5,000 men and women will see their hourly wages increase to $11.55, starting on January 1, 2018, then to $12.15 in 2019 and to $12.75 in 2020.
Because Huntleigh workers can be fired at any time, through no fault of their own, they continue their fight for basic rights and protections that only a union can provide. Contracted workers at DCA and Dulles have received support from numerous high-level leaders including DNC Chairman and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Virginia Governor-elect Ralph Northam, Virginia Congressmen Gerry Connolly, Tom Perriello and Don Beyer, D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Virginia Delegates Alphonso Lopez and Jennifer Boysko as well as Actor and anti-poverty activist, Danny Glover.
Airport workers across the country are taking action and winning. By sticking together, speaking out for change, and going on strike, contracted airport workers have won wage increases in Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, Minneapolis, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, and Fort Lauderdale. Today, more than 118,000 airport workers nationwide have either received wages increases or other improvements, including health care, paid sick leave and worker retention policies. More than 23,000 airport workers have won a union voice with SEIU.
Thirty years ago airlines began subcontracting out work that used to be done by union workers. This low-bid subcontracting system has left subcontracted airport workers in poverty and resulted in high turnover and short staffing in airport jobs. Airport workers at Dulles and National join a growing movement of airport workers across the country protesting the low-bid contracting system that continues to perpetrate a race to the bottom for workers and passengers alike.
At Dulles, Huntleigh services: American Airlines, Air China, Air Canada, Air France, Austrian Airlines, Saudia, Emirates, Ethiopian, KLM, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Qatar, South African, Avianca, Icelandair, Copa, LATAM Airlines, TACA Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, JetBlue. At DCA Huntleigh airlines include: Jetblue, Virgin America, Southwest, American, Sun Country, Air Canada and Frontier.
