The rally was part of a series of actions by airport workers in more than a dozen cities around the country, calling out American Airlines for its business practices and calling on Congress to guarantee better wages and sick leave for airport workers.
The rallies took place at airports in Phoenix and 13 other cities, including Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C., as part of a campaign by the Service Employees International Union. The rallies came at the start of what's expected to be a busy 4th of July holiday travel period.
Many of the workers protesting on Wednesday were airport service workers, including cabin cleaners and passenger service assistants who assist travelers in wheelchairs. Several told Phoenix New Times that they had turned out in hopes they could improve their wages and working conditions.
"These people are working hard, and they're doing hard work. And they deserve the respect and the pay and the insurance," said Janae van De Kerk, who has worked as a passenger service assistant at Sky Harbor since November.
Like most PSAs, van De Kerk makes minimum wage — $13.85 in Arizona — plus tips. But those tips are often meager. In one recent eight-hour shift, van De Kerk recalled, she left with only $15 extra in tipped wages.
Linda, another worker who stopped to speak to New Times at the rally, said she also was struggling to get by. She asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of retaliation for speaking out.
"My wages are low. I can barely survive, and it starts to weigh on your mental health. It creates a hopeless feeling," Linda said. "I work hard, and I just struggle so hard because the prices for everything [have] gone up."
Airport workers carried signs and chanted, "No Justice! No Peace," "What does a union look like? This is what a union looks like!"
O'Hara Shipe
Rally part of ongoing union drive at Sky Harbor
Linda, van De Kerk and other airport service workers generally don't work directly for airlines or the city of Phoenix, which owns the airport, but instead for contractors that provide lower wages and often see high turnover. Some of the vendors offer health insurance, but at a high cost and with limited coverage, according to workers. Van De Kerk said she pays $150 per month for health insurance, which is a considerable portion of her minimum wage salary."Really it's better to not pay for the insurance, because a lot of the stuff that the people here need is not covered. A lot of us have preexisting conditions," said Sally Mavuwa, another passenger service assistant at Sky Harbor.
Mavuwa, like other workers New Times spoke with, emphasized that she loved her job and the day to day of helping passengers get around and caring for them. It was the conditions that she hoped to see change. "Right now I feel like we're not being taken care of," she said.
The Service Employees International Union has been organizing with airport service workers in Phoenix for months, though the union does not formally represent workers there. A petition for a union election has not yet been filed in Phoenix, but SEIU successfully won a new airport service workers union in Charlotte in May.
Legislation to provide updated guidance and regulation for the Federal Aviation Administration is making its way through Congress. Airport workers across the country hope they can win better wage provisions and guaranteed sick leave in the bill, which was a focus of Wednesday's rally.
Wednesday's rally comes after a similar action by Sky Harbor service workers in December. Airport concession workers held a successful strike in November 2021.
