500 Charlotte airport workers who earn ‘near poverty’ wages agree to unionize
Citing wages long stuck near the poverty level, nearly 500 workers for an American Airlines ground services provider at Charlotte Douglas International Airport voted Thursday to unionize, labor union officials said Friday.
Charlotte’s airport is the second-largest American Airlines hub in the U.S. and one of the world’s busiest airports.
The vote to join the Service Employees International Union represented one of the largest union elections of airport workers in the Carolinas since 1997, SEIU officials said in a statement.
The workers are ramp agents, cabin cleaners, lavatory and water agents, high-lift truck drivers and pro shop employees at American Airlines ground services provider Jetstream Ground Services Inc.
Vehicle and equipment cleaners, including cabin cleaners, are the lowest paid airport jobs, with an annual median income of $25,030, union officials said. People of color hold 80% of those jobs, according to the union.
“This is a victory not only for Charlotte’s airport service workers, but also for our families, communities and workers here in the South,” Lashonda Barber, a high lift Truck driver at CLT, said in the union statement.
The union will bargain for better pay and benefits for the workers, SEIU officials said.
American Airlines didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Charlotte Observer.
This story was originally published May 12, 2023 at 12:04 PM with the headline "500 Charlotte airport workers who earn ‘near poverty’ wages agree to unionize."