‘All I do is work’: Miami airport service workers protest low wages, demand sick leave

Susan Seale’s grueling hours from 3 a.m. to 2 p.m. working as a wheelchair attendant for Southwest Airlines at Miami International Airport have taken a physical and mental toll. She has back problems from the manual labor, but even worse, she said she barely gets to see her 17-year-old daughter.

Seale, a 47-year-old immigrant from Venezuela, started at the airport as a ramp agent with Delta Airlines before asking for a transfer due to body aches from hauling luggage.

She earns $18.73 an hour with no fringe benefits. Since that pay isn’t enough for her and her daughter to survive, she holds a second job at an Amazon warehouse. Sometimes mother and daughter go three weeks without seeing each other.

“All I do is work, go home to sleep, and go back to work,” Seale said Thursday, while participating in an airport service workers’ demonstration to push for higher wages, paid sick leave. “In these jobs, we have to work so many hours to get by. It doesn’t allow us to have a normal life. We deserve a dignified salary and paid time off like other workers.”

Service workers at Miami airport fall under Miami Dade County’s “living wage ordinance,” yet make an average of $33,696 a year, according to a recent survey by the Local 32BJ branch of the Service Employees International Union. These local airport workers are part of the Local 32BJ union.

The group of about 50 Miami airport workers protesting in the middle of holiday travel season joined their counterparts demonstrating at 14 other airports across the country. In solidarity, they’re calling on Congress to pass the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act, which would mandate living wages and benefits for airport workers in the United States.

“These low-wage jobs have created a crisis in our airports including understaffed positions, overworked employees and tons of delayed and canceled flights,” said Alexi Cardona, a spokesperson for Local 32BJ. “This bill would set wage and benefits standards at airports across the country.”

The legislation was introduced in June by Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and he’s still gathering cosponsors. Union organizers hope to garner strong bipartisan congressional support for the measure by early next year.

Cardona said part of the problem is that many people who work at airports are employed by subcontractors, rather than by the airlines or airports. Baggage handlers, security screeners, wheelchair attendants and cabin cleaners work for third parties that hold contracts with the airlines. Union organizers say the subcontractors bid to provide these services to airlines at the lowest possible price, creating a race to the bottom in terms of compensation.

In August, the 32BJ service workers’ union local released a survey of 639 airport workers at Florida’s four largest airports — Miami, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Orlando International Airport and Tampa International Airport. The survey showed that 85% of those airport workers couldn’t afford their monthly housing costs. Also, as essential infrastructure, airports remained open through the worst of the coronavirus pandemic that began in March 2020. Still, 90% of service workers at Florida’s four biggest airports didn’t receive any paid sick leave.

American Airlines, the largest airline flying from Miami airport, didn’t immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment about the workers’ protest. In August, the airline addressed the labor strife in a statement, saying that it doesn’t play a part in employee relations among its subcontractors.

“This study is related to employees of companies American does business with. We do not get involved in discussions between other companies and their employees,” American officials said then, noting that the airline has created more than 140,000 jobs through businesses that support their operations at Miami airport.