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Service workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport walked off the job Monday in order to protest low wages and unfair labor practices.
The employees work for two American Airlines subcontractors, ABM and Prospect Airport Services, and carry out essential tasks like cleaning airplane interiors, collecting trash, and escorting passengers who are in wheelchairs. They voted to authorize a 24-hour strike this past Friday.
The workers are represented by Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which released a statement Monday announcing the strike and saying that the employees are demanding “an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the holiday travel season,” according to WCCB Charlotte. SEIU represents about 700 workers at CLT, a spokesman told the The Charlotte Ledger Monday.
In addition to a late-morning rally, the workers plan to hold a “Strikesgiving” lunch “in place of the Thanksgiving meal that many of the workers won’t be able to afford later this week,” union officials said. WCNC Charlotte showed workers picketing early Monday morning with signs that read “Poverty Doesn’t Fly” and “Respect Black and Brown Workers.”
The strike could be disruptive, given that the Charlotte airport estimates that it will process upwards of a million passengers between this past Thursday and the Monday following Thanksgiving.
In a statement sent around to press, the union said that most workers earn between $12.50 and $19 and hour, which they called insufficient.
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator, a living wage in the Charlotte metropolitan area is $23.26 an hour for one adult with no children.
“We’re on strike today because this is our last resort. We can’t keep living like this,” ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said in a statement, according to CBS News. “We’re taking action because our families can’t survive.”
Workers picketed on Friday to draw attention to their labor action. At the picket, one worker told local news that he’s currently living in a storage unit, and that his current wage isn’t enough to get a one- or two-bedroom apartment.
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