Kathy Willens/AP Photo
JFK’s relatively empty Terminal 1 earlier this month
After four years working as a baggage handler at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, Kachelle Lasley was laid off last Saturday, becoming one of thousands of airport workers laid off nationwide as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Like many of these laid-off workers—a group that includes wheelchair attendants, airplane-cabin cleaners, skycaps, and security guards—Lasley was deeply worried how she would pay her April rent.
“I’m not sure how I’ll survive,” she said in an interview on Tuesday. “I still have a few dollars from my last paycheck. I worry whether I’ll have enough money for food next week.”
Lasley, 30, joined a major campaign by her Manhattan-based union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, that called on Washington not to give the airlines the $60 billion bailout they were seeking unless airport workers—not just direct employees like pilots and flight attendants, but also contracted airport employees like baggage handlers and cabin cleaners—benefited from the bailout.
“A lot of people in my position work paycheck to paycheck. They don’t have any savings,” said Lasley, who applied for unemployment insurance this week. “The bailout shouldn’t go just to the airlines and the people who work directly for the airlines. A lot of the contract companies and contract workers do a lot of the work. We do a lot of the heavy labor.”
Lasley and many other airport workers got some good news on Wednesday when the Senate approved a $2 trillion stimulus package, which, as part of the airline bailout, included $3 billion aimed at deterring airlines and airports from laying off over 100,000 contracted airport workers nationwide. In addition, the stimulus bill would provide substantially increased unemployment benefits to workers like Lasley.
Lasley applauded the legislation, but remained uncertain whether it would get her employer to take her back in the near future. “I hope it will enable me and all my coworkers to get rehired,” she said. “We did a lot for them.”
She was pleased that the stimulus bill would pay improved jobless benefits. “Whatever unemployment insurance can do for us is greatly appreciated,” Lasley said. “Nobody should get laid off right now, but things are very difficult.”
Her employer had her oversee baggage carousels at JFK for Delta, KLM, Virgin Atlantic, and Aeroméxico, meaning she often removed heavy luggage from those carousels. (One of Lasley’s biggest financial burdens is $39,000 in student debt she incurred when attending a for-profit college where she studied fashion. She dropped out because she could no longer afford to continue.)
Lasley’s union, Local 32BJ, and its parent, the Service Employees International Union, urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, and other Democratic senators to insist that any airline bailout include help for the contracted airport workers. The stimulus package includes $25 billion in grants and $25 billion in loans for the airlines, with specific provisions designed to keep airport workers employed.
“This is the power of a union,” said Andre Cooper, a cabin cleaner at Newark Liberty International Airport and a member of Local 32BJ.
Mary Kay Henry, SEIU’s president, thanked a host of Democratic lawmakers for making sure the legislation protected these workers. “Contracted airport workers just showed that when we stick together, we can win for our families,” Henry said. “This was an incredible show of union solidarity that serves as an example to working people everywhere. Now we’re calling on the airline industry to stop the layoffs of thousands of contracted airport workers.”
The $3 billion to save the jobs of contracted airport workers is part of more than $25 billion in grants to the airlines that the flight attendants, the machinists, and other transportation unions persuaded senators to include in the stimulus legislation with the condition that the airlines retain their employees.
Whether cabin cleaners, baggage handlers, or wheelchair attendants, many airport workers felt they were on the front lines in high-risk jobs, encountering passengers who might have been infected. To them, the provisions the SEIU won were a big relief.
“This is the power of a union,” said Andre Cooper, a cabin cleaner at Newark Liberty International Airport and a member of Local 32BJ. “With this global crisis all around, this gives me a little peace of mind that my hard work will be rewarded.”
In one of the nation’s largest unionization efforts in recent years, Local 32BJ has unionized more than 15,000 contract airport workers, not just at the three major New York airports (JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark), but also in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Florida. Over 2,500 of those 32BJ members have been laid off in recent days.
Kyle Bragg, Local 32BJ’s president, said there were still many details to analyze in the airline bailout. “Many safeguards will be needed to ensure that airline contractors use this funding to help their workers—as it was intended,” Bragg said. “Airline contractors must do the right thing and use these resources to keep their workforce intact so that our airports can resume quickly when this crisis is over.”
Last weekend, Local 32BJ and SEIU held news conferences, conducted by telephone, that House members and state and city lawmakers joined to urge Congress not to approve an airline bailout unless it protected airport workers.
Joining Local 32BJ’s news conference, New York state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi said: “Under no circumstances would I ever be supporting a $60 billion bailout for these companies and their CEOs, only to subsidize CEO salaries and bonuses and not put first the workers who are making sure the airports run. The workers are the airports’ critical infrastructure. Without workers a wheelchair doesn’t push itself, a bag does not carry itself. These are the people who make these airlines successful.”
Lasley was thankful that Local 32BJ had played a big role in improving the stimulus package also, previously, in pushing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to agree to create a $19 minimum wage for 40,000 airport workers at JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark by 2023. As a result, her pay has climbed from $10 an hour when she started at JFK to $15.60 an hour when she was laid off.
“They’re been doing everything they can for us,” she said.
