"Whose airport?" "Our airport!" The chants echoed from a small gathering of airport service workers and organizers with the Service Employees International Union outside Terminal 4.
The event was held in solidarity with ongoing strikes by airport service workers in Chicago, Boston and Newark who are demanding better working conditions, according to organizers. Employees in Phoenix and a dozen other cities across the U.S. rallied on Thursday to support the strikes and pressure lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to pass a bill that would raise wages and improve conditions for airport service workers.
Prisilla Vega was one Sky Harbor worker who took part in the rally. For the past year, Vega has done janitorial and other service jobs at the airport. Currently, she works as a cabin cleaner. Like in many airports, most of Sky Harbor's employees work for subcontractors that the airport hires for services.
Vega makes $15 an hour working for Prospect Airport Services. She said she's frustrated by the low wages and the treatment she's experienced as a service worker. "We get paid so little for doing so much," she told Phoenix New Times.
Earlier this year, while working for another airport subcontractor, she said she was denied sick leave and threatened with termination when she needed time off for emergency surgery. The experience opened her eyes, she told the crowd. "Us workers, we need to stand up. And we need to fight for what's right for us," Vega said.
At Sky Harbor, service workers such as Vega are in the process of organizing with SEIU, although they have not yet filed for a union election.
But labor actions have become common at the airport, which employs 32,000 people and is one of the largest workplaces in Arizona. In 2021, concession workers went on strike, securing some major wins in a new contract. Last month, flight attendants at American Airlines picketed at Sky Harbor and airports around the country.
Phoenix Councilmember Betty Guardado said she's proud to support airport workers who are trying to unionize.
Katya Schwenk
‘It’s Time for Change’
Phoenix Councilmember Betty Guardado showed up on Thursday to offer her support. She also was present at the strike last year. A former union organizer with Unite Here!, which represents concession workers at Sky Harbor, Guardado sits on the city council's transportation committee and has been supportive of labor action by airport workers."It's time for change. I'm proud to back airport service workers across industries who are demanding to be respected, protected, and paid so they can provide for their families," Guardado told the crowd.
Guardado told New Times she hoped to continue working on these issues through the city council, particularly now that a new organizing campaign at Sky Harbor was ongoing. "I'm always happy and open to sitting down with the union and seeing what type of policies that we can actually pass at the city and what opportunities that are out there to make sure we can hold these companies accountable," she said.
On Thursday, airport workers highlighted the importance of the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act, which was introduced in Congress in June. The legislation would establish a minimum wage and benefits for service workers at airports nationwide, putting these employees "on a path to living wages," according to Airport Workers United, a nationwide airport service workers union.
"Corporations are guzzling record profits, but the workers that keep our airports open and accessible aren’t paid living wages — and forget about benefits or health care," Sky Harbor worker Angel Ortiz said in a prepared statement.
Tamra Ingersoll, public information manager for Sky Harbor, said the airport is home to several employers and directed New Times' questions about workplace conditions to those companies.
