Service Employees Fearful About Jobs
Tuesday’s disaster has left thousands of airport service employees short of pay and bracing for possible layoffs.
Airport workers nationwide are scrambling to understand how changes in airport security will affect them. Many are also concerned that they may not be paid for the last three days of closure.
“It may seem trivial in the grand scheme of things,” said Jonathan Shaeffer, Western regional coordinator for the Service Employees International Union. “But for a low-wage worker, the loss is significant.”
Service workers often hold two airport jobs to make ends meet, so they are doubly hurt by the closures, said Tom Walsh, president of a hotel workers union local that represents 2,000 employees at Los Angeles International Airport.
The majority of the workers prepare in-flight meals, but many also work behind the counters of retail and food shops.
With a new emphasis on airport security, thousands of concession workers, security screeners, parking attendants and others will face vastly different work rules.
Some fear they may lose their jobs to more highly trained professionals; others expect to see diminished business, since areas past security checkpoints (where concessions such as coffee shops and magazine stands are often located) will be limited to ticketed passengers.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” Walsh said. “Certainly everyone is nervous there will be some layoffs. It’s such a fluid situation right now. We’re trying to figure out how to respond and how to keep our members informed.”
Eddie Iny, who coordinates a multi-union organizing campaign for the AFL-CIO at LAX, said workers want to get answers soon. “Right now, they don’t have work and they don’t know what is going to happen.”
Nationwide, about 30,000 members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union have been out of work for three days.
“At least now the airports are beginning to resume activities, and everyone is working extremely cooperatively. That’s the good news,” said Ken Paulsen, general vice president for the hotel union.
“We are having regular and daily discussions with major operators, the FAA and airport authorities and a lot of local operators,” Paulsen said. “The problem is, not everybody has the same information. It’s all coming out so fast, trying to keep up with it is difficult.”
Host Marriott Corp., which employs many airport concession workers, was closed and could not be reached for comment on whether workers would be paid.
Huntleigh USA, which employs about 50,000 skycaps, security screeners and wheelchair attendants across the United States, said it planned to offer alternative airport jobs to displaced workers.
“Security as we know it is going to change,” said Huntleigh USA President Joe Tuero. “If anything, it may result in an increase in the number of employees.”
But Tuero agreed that some could take steep pay cuts, if, for example, a skycap loses tip money in moving to a wheelchair attendant position.
Tuero also said Huntleigh employees would not be paid for time off forced by the closures.
The International Assn. of Machinists, which represents more than 100,000 airport employees nationwide, including mechanics, ramp service workers and ticket agents, reported that its members are being fully paid for the days of closure.
In the long run, however, union members will also see their more highly skilled jobs undergo drastic change, said spokesman Frank Larkin.
“Everything will be affected,” he said. “Employment, passenger expectations, all of that will have a permanent effect on everyone from ground crews to the folks who take phone reservations. It’s going to be a very different world.”
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