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Summer is in full swing and so is the dysfunction in U.S. air travel. As travel approaches pre-pandemic levels, it isn't working for anyone—not for travelers, and least of all for airport service workers.
Airport service workers make up roughly two-fifths of the entire workforce in the U.S. air travel industry. You may not always see them, but these are the people who help keep airports safe and travelers on time by taking on critical roles such as cabin cleaners, ramp workers, baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants, and security personnel.
This workforce is powered by Black, brown, and immigrant workers who are struggling to keep the entire system running and stay afloat themselves. Many airport service workers' wages have been near poverty level for the past 20 years. And it's overwhelmingly workers of color who do the lowest-paid jobs within our airports. A staggering 84 percent of cabin cleaners, who make about 43 cents on the dollar compared to the median transportation industry worker, are people of color. You can't support a family or pay the bills on low-wage, no-benefit jobs. All of this is driving high turnover and short staffing that only creates more chaos.
A safer, more efficient travel system is possible—if our elected leaders have the courage to step up to ensure working people are respected, protected and paid fair wages.
Congress has the power to fix the air travel crisis driven by corporations' failure to invest in the airport service workforce. That starts with centering service workers in this year's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Budget Reauthorization and including good jobs that offer, at minimum, fair wages, affordable health care, and paid sick time as part of that bill.
It's absurd that the workers who help make travel possible are paid poverty wages even after the industry received billions in federal funds to stabilize operations. That's why, this summer, airport service workers are raising their voices and organizing their communities to demand good jobs at our nation's airports.
Their demands are reaching a fever pitch because the status quo is untenable. Just look at Lashonda Barber, a truck driver at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The airport is so short staffed, she has to put in extra hours cleaning cabins, too. Shonda works over 65 hours a week, yet can hardly survive on poverty wages.
Or Nora Dumenigo, who works as a cabin cleaner at Miami International Airport. In 2020, she tested positive for COVID-19 and was out of work without pay for three months. She tested positive for COVID-19 a second time in 2022 and had to take 15 days of unpaid leave. Because of the lost income, Nora had to pause her family's mortgage payments for six months. Now the payments are coming due.
Ensuring workers have fair wages, affordable health care, and paid sick days is about both public health and financial security. Losing months of wages adds up, and Nora knows how reckless it is for companies to deny workers paid sick days and pressure them to come into work when they're sick or not to disclose their illness.
Lashonda and Nora are just two of the more than 370,000 airport service workers from coast to coast who keep our airports safe, clean, and functional. They help people see loved ones and keep the global economy running. Yet they continue to be undervalued.
FAA Reauthorization offers an opportunity to reverse course and support hundreds of thousands of working people and their families. Congress is legislating the FAA Reauthorization right now, working through many different priorities from tech upgrades to workforce support to safety measures and beyond.
It's imperative that through it all, working people's demands remain front and center.
The House has included some limited workforce support in its draft of the bill, but it's not enough. FAA reauthorization needs to lift up many more workers, including service workers cleaning cabins, helping passengers who use wheelchairs, working on the tarmac, moving bags and cargo, and securing our airports. The workers who help keep our airports functioning are demanding the same wage and benefits standards that those who work on federally funded construction projects or the federal government's direct service contracts receive. As the Senate begins its deliberations on the FAA Reauthorization in the weeks ahead, we cannot exclude the workers who make up the foundation of the air travel system.
Fixing air travel means fixing the broken system where Black, brown, and immigrant service workers make poverty wages and can barely get by, leading to unsustainable turnover and short staffing. It's a simple solution to helping build a safer, more efficient air travel system that is prepared for the future.
If Congress leaves airport workers out of the FAA reauthorization, we can expect to see more of the same dysfunction in our nation's air travel system. Workers and travelers alike are fed up and ready to hold Congress accountable. We're watching closely to see who supports the working people that help make air travel possible and who doesn't.
Mary Kay Henry is the International President of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
