Airlines Urged to Solve Labor Disputes

Concerned about an increasingly bitter union battle at Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles City Council members said Thursday that they want airlines to step in and resolve labor disputes between their subcontractors and their workers--a controversial notion, given the council’s role in overseeing some airline operations at LAX.

The council’s personnel committee agreed Thursday to several measures aimed at helping the security screeners, baggage handlers and wheelchair attendants who work for Argenbright Security, a subcontractor of United Airlines. The issue now will move to the full council for debate and a vote.

At issue are the hundreds of baggage workers in several terminals at LAX. They are demanding to be recognized as part of the Service Employees International Union--Local 1877, the powerful union that has won janitors rights across the city.

But Argenbright officials have said the company won’t recognize the results of a union election last month nor the union itself. That has infuriated some council members, who are trying to put pressure on the firm to recognize labor organizing efforts.

The issue comes at a crucial time for United: The airline wants to expand its cargo facility and needs City Hall support. The airline, according to sources, believes it is being squeezed by the lawmakers who must decide on the cargo facility issue as well. United officials also complain that although it has done more than most airlines to boost wages--the company voluntarily has instituted pay hikes for its lowest-paid employees--it remains a target of labor because of the size of its Los Angeles operations.

Mike Garcia, president of SEIU-Local 1877, said the union definitely will link the two issues and that the union sympathizes with community activists and others who oppose United’s attempts to increase its cargo facility, already among the largest at the airport. He added that many of these workers live in the communities surrounding LAX and would also feel the potential effects of a cargo expansion.

“This is a double blow of disrespect to these workers and the neighboring communities,” Garcia said. “We all want to work together with United but this [labor dispute] is a problem.”

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, arguably labor’s biggest ally in City Hall and chairwoman of the personnel committee, said the airlines should be responsible for labor disputes that arise among their subcontractors. Among other things, she wants the full council to call on United, Delta and Northwest airlines to resolve labor conflicts in a timely manner with subcontractors. She also will ask the council to go on record as recognizing that the vast majority of those who voted for the union want to be represented by Local 1877. She also proposed that the council call on United to ensure that Argenbright pays a so-called living wage, which the city defines as $7.51 per hour plus benefits, to all workers covered by the city law.

Of the 405 ballots counted after the Sept. 10 election, 384 voted in favor of SEIU representation, officials said.

The Center for Dispute Resolution, a private group of mediators, conducted the secret ballot election. Local 1877, which represents 30,000 janitors, asked the group for its assistance to ensure a fair, impartial election process.

But officials from the center as well as from the airports department told council members that they received numerous complaints about Argenbright management attempting to discredit the union. Some workers said they were threatened with disciplinary action if they voted for union representation.

“There’s been plenty of intimidation,” said Dionicia Robinson, a wheelchair attendant and dispatcher who works in Terminal 2. Argenbright managers have stated “that the union is a hoax, a fake . . . . There’s constant intimidation.”

The city’s airports department also reported that election signs inside and outside the terminals were removed or tampered with on election day.

The workers’ problems with Argenbright have been simmering for about 18 months, virtually since the union launched its Respect at LAX campaign. Workers have staged job actions and appealed before the City Council in an effort to win union representation and to be paid a living wage.

Mayor Richard Riordan, who has encouraged the airlines to pay workers under the city’s living wage law, announced this year that United had agreed to comply. But union organizers say not all the workers are covered by that agreement, leaving many among the lowest paid employees at the airport.

Argenbright officials have said these workers should be considered security guards and that Local 1877, which won union membership for janitors across the city, is the wrong union to represent these airport workers.

The National Labor Relations Board agreed in a letter to Goldberg, stating that it believes the workers also should be considered security guards. But SEIU’s Garcia said the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor does not have a guards union and therefore Local 1877 is the most appropriate union for those airport workers.