Last week, 500 workers at a ground services provider for Charlotte Douglas International Airport voted to unionize with the SEIU in what Airport Workers United called the "largest union election of airport workers in the Carolinas" since 1997.
According to the Charlotte Observer, these workers cover jobs from ramp agents to cabin cleaners to high-lift truck drivers—but all of them are ultimately employed by Jetstream Ground Services Inc. on behalf of American Airlines. They are also generally horrendously paid and really need that changed. At the lowest end, according to the SEIU, some of these workers make $25,000 a year, equivalent to $12/hr on a full-time wage. Unsurprisingly almost all of these workers are minorities.
These workers have previously protested their working conditions, most recently in December when they turned out for Senator Ed Markey's (D-MA) Good Jobs for Good Airports Act. One worker who was profiled by WCNC Charlotte, cabin cleaner Morgani Brown, said at the time:
I had to go back to work a month after my baby was born because I couldn't afford to stay home without pay. Many of us have to work overtime or multiple jobs, just to pay the bills.
Another noted that they frequently worked 60 hour weeks to survive.