Airport Workers Rally for Higher Wages

Airport workers, mostly cabin cleaners, rallied at Newark Liberty International Airport Friday demanding an increase in wages, which organizers said have been declining in the field for more than a decade.

Also attending the rally Friday were prominent clergy members, including Pastor Joe Carter of New Hope Baptist Church in Newark. 

“Tens of thousands of contracted airport workers – many of whom live within five miles of Newark International Airport in the city’s highest-poverty wards – struggle to make ends meet for themselves and their families. To stretch their income, many skip meals, wear hand-me-down clothes and rely on public assistance to supplement their skimpy earnings,” said Carte

According to Course Correction, a new UC Berkeley study on the negative impact of airport service outsourcing in workers’ wages, airport-related workers saw real hourly wages fall by an average of 15 percent from 2002 to 2012. The report also notes that, while the total number of workers in air transport-related industries has declined since 2001, the share of outsourced workers grew from 19 percent to 26 percent by 2011.

“As a regional economic engine, the airport should benefit everybody not just airlines and contractors that profit under a business model that is fundamentally unfair,” said Kevin Brown, New Jersey State Director of 32BJ SEIU, a labor union representing property service workers