By Bill Parry
Several thousand airport workers voted to join a union to further their ongoing battle for fair wages and benefits.
At a raucous proceeding Monday, at Riverside Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, community groups counted commitment cards signed by 4,051 workers to join SEIU 32BJ.
The workers say they are now ready to fight for a binding contract and the enforcement of a directive issued by the Port Authority in January demanding that four airlines that use Kennedy and LaGuardia airports raise wages to $10.10 per hour. Workers’ wages are currently around $8 per hour, which is the minimum wage in New York state.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged the action by the Port Authority following a rally and protest by airport workers on Martin Luther King Jr. Day followed by a 10-mile march by 100 of the workers from Kennedy to LaGuardia April 4. Both marches were organized by SEIU 32BJ.
“Look how far we’ve come in such a short time,” worker Michael Carey said. “I know it’s not going to be easy, but I’m confident we will get a union, that we will get a contract that pays us fair wages and benefits and that we will get the respect and dignity in our workplaces.”
Former Mayor David Dinkins attended the event and told the workers, “Your cause is just and everybody knows that. I am confident that you are going to win and I will be proud to say I was with you.”
Carey served as the master of ceremony, telling the crowd that he is a security officer for contractor Aviation Safeguard at Kennedy and does the same job as the officers who work for Allied Barton, which is contracted to the Port Authority at the airports. But he said he earns less than half their pay without any of the benefits like health care, vacation and pension that they get.
The Rev. James Forbes, of Riverside Church, said, “We stand with you 100 percent. We will not rest until people understand that we will not be a great nation until everyone is given the wages we deserve and the conditions that will sustain us. Only then will we be the great America we talk about.”
Meanwhile, following three strikes and tense negotiations, the “carwasheros” at the Off Broadway Car Wash have won a contract that will raise wages and establish a host of worker protections.
Off Broadway, at 42-08 80th St. in Elmhurst, becomes the seventh car wash to reach a contract since the Wash New York campaign began in 2012, a collaboration of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and two organizing groups: Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change.
“The mostly immigrant workers at Off Broadway Car Wash are now members of the RWDSU,” union president Stuart Appelbaum said. “Their wages will increase immediately and they will receive paid time off.”
One of the 16 workers, Refugio Denicia said, “I feel happy and satisfied. I hope our contract is an example to other workers who might feel like they don’t have a voice.”
City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights), who supported the strikes, said, “These are the benefits of our efforts with the ‘carwasheros’ to achieve a just contract. It shows change can happen.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
