Workers' wages at Charlotte Douglas International Airport forced workers to go on strike during the busy Thanksgiving travel week.
Service workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport went on strike during the busy Thanksgiving travel week to protest what they consider insufficient wages to survive.
Employees at ABM and Prospect Airport Services voted Friday to authorize the strike in North Carolina, which a spokesperson said began Monday morning.
Service Employees Union officials announced the impending strike in a statement early Monday, saying workers will demand “an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the travel season.”
ABM and Prospect Airport Services contract with American Airlines to provide services including cleaning aircraft interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs.
Workers said they had already reported their increasing inability to afford basic needs, including food and shelter. They described living paycheck to paycheck, unable to cover expenses like car repairs while doing jobs that keep countless planes running on schedule.
“We are on strike today because this is our last resort. We cannot continue to live like this,” said Priscilla Hoyle, cabin cleaner at ABM, in a statement.
“We are taking action because our families cannot survive.” Several hundred workers were scheduled to abandon their jobs and continue the work stoppage throughout Monday.
Most of them earn between $12.50 and $19 an hour, which is well below the living wage for a single person without children in the Charlotte area, union officials said.
Workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport have said this holiday travel season is expected to be the busiest on record, with an estimated 1.02 million passengers leaving the airport from last Thursday through the Monday after Thanksgiving of Thanks.