Four custodial workers at Sky Harbor Phoenix International Airport are getting their jobs back, plus back pay, in a settlement between their employer, GCA Services, and the feds.
Isabell Marquez, Yadu Rijal, Hamid Amiri and Geoffery Kachiolwa were fired from their jobs because of their support for their union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99, a union news release says.
The fired workers will split about $23,000 in back pay and have disciplinary black marks removed from their employment records, thanks to a consent decree formulated by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board and made official in federal district court.
The announcement comes days after airport custodial workers protested against low wages in a demonstration likely organized by the union.
According to the UCFW's news release:
GCA must also cease and desist from interrogating workers about their union sympathies, maintaining illegal work rules, threatening workers with reprisals for supporting the union, requiring workers to show their cell phones to see who they've been calling or texting, threatening employees by calling the police in response to lawful activity, and to an array of other steps guaranteeing its employees' rights under federal labor law. The Court's order and the NLRB settlement must be posted at the worksite and will be read aloud to employees in their relevant languages in the presence of top management officials.
GCA also contracts with a number of local school districts for custodial work.
A "rally" for the returning workers was planned for this afternoon at the airport. Union officials couldn't be reached for comment.
