Airport workers experience massive
layoffs as airlines seek $60 billion bailout
BY BILL PARRY
Thousands of airport workers
at LaGuardia and JFK airports
have been laid off and
many more are threatened by
the collapse of air travel during
the coronavirus emergency.
Contracted skycaps, wheelchair
agents, cabin cleaners,
baggage handlers and security
personnel, many of them
who marched, rallied and took
part in sit-ins during an early
decade-long fight for a fair
wage, benefits and the right to
organize, all while the airlines
lobby for a nearly $60 billion
taxpayer bailout.
Luerica Fiffee, a passenger
service representative at JFK,
was among the first to be laid
off last week.
“If they are bailing out the
airlines, they have to be bailing
out the workers,” Fiffee
said. “How am I going to manage?
That, I’m not quite sure of
yet. Literally no one is hiring.
There is nothing you can do except
hope and pray that something
gets better.”
32BJ SEIU president Kyle
Bragg said the bailout request
by the airlines to Congress and
President Trump shows the
airline industry is again just
looking out for itself at the expense
of the workers.
“We cannot just do the same
old trick of opening the bailout
spigot to reward wealthy airline
corporations while leaving
the most vulnerable workers
out in the cold,” Bragg said.
“These workers earn the least
yet risk themselves the most.
Many lack health care to even
care for themselves in the face
of this pandemic.”
More than 50 New York
state and city elected officials
signed a letter of support for
contract airport workers, including
Councilman Donovan
Richards, who represents
many of the workers who live
near JFK.
“We should flip the script
that says corporations deserve
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.8 COM | MARCH 27-APRIL 2, 2020
to be showered with money
while workers are stranded in
the face of challenges,” Richards
said. “Who needs relief
more, hard-working New Yorkers
who live paycheck to paycheck
yet sacrifice the most,
or profitable corporations that
pay them as little as they could
get away with? New Yorkers
need relief. Members of our
community need relief.”
Councilman Francisco
Moya, who represents many of
the workers that live near La-
Guardia Airport, agreed.
“In the face of this pandemic,
we should be sharing sacrifices,
not cutting the ground
out from hard-working New
Yorkers,” Moya said. “These
airlines take the labor of
members of our communities,
which they grudgingly compensate,
then insist they are
the only ones affected by this
pandemic.”
Contracted airport workers
are calling on Congress to support
paid sick leave, affordable
healthcare, and essential layoff
protections while elected
officials demand the same in
any airline bailout legislation.
“It’s the hard labor of contracted
airport workers that
has enabled airlines to generate
immense profits they have
in recent years,” state Senator
Michael Gianaris said. “We
cannot bail them out without
supporting those who have
made them so profitable, who
have been putting their lives
on the line every time they go
to work.”
Many of the airport workers who have protested for the right to
organize have been laid off while to airline industry pushed for a
$60 billion bailout. Photo by Bill Parry