Air journey this vacation season is on monitor to be as busy as ever. Already, Thanksgiving week noticed a record number of passengers journey by our nation’s airports, together with Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT), the place I work. As Thanksgiving week kicked off, my coworkers and I made the tough however crucial resolution to walk out of our important, frontline airport service jobs as a result of airways and companies have created a poverty wage disaster.
I work as a wheelchair agent, taking aged individuals and different vacationers utilizing wheelchairs the place they should go within the airport. Which means giving very private help to somebody, serving to them get meals, for instance, and ensuring they get to their gate safely and on time. I really like speaking with passengers about the place they’re going, particularly across the holidays after I might help them get house to their family members. However whereas I assist prospects and passengers get house, on the finish of my shift, I don’t have a house to return to.
Proper now, I’m homeless. I used to be not too long ago searching for a brand new place to reside and located that reasonably priced locations to remain in Charlotte have almost vanished—at the least for people who find themselves paid $12.50 an hour plus suggestions like me. As rental costs have skyrocketed over the past decade, my pay has barely budged, even because the journey trade is booming. A dwelling wage for a single individual with no youngsters within the Charlotte-Metro space is $23.26 an hour. My wages aren’t almost sufficient to cowl a $1,300-per-month one-bedroom house and nonetheless have cash for meals, transportation, and utilities.
As my seek for an reasonably priced place to reside got here up dry, I used to be left with no alternative however to sleep within the storage unit the place I used to be holding my belongings. Every day after my shift, I might take public transportation again to the ability and arrive round 2 a.m. It labored for some time, however sadly I used to be kicked out the day after my coworkers and I went on strike.
This vacation season, I’m as soon as once more questioning the place I’ll sleep when my shift ends.
I’m removed from the one one struggling. In a latest survey carried out by the Service Workers Worldwide Union (SEIU), 4 in 10 airport staff at CLT reported being concerned about the place they’d sleep at evening, both dealing with the upcoming risk of an eviction, sleeping of their automobiles, or having to cram their total households into single-room leases. Greater than half reported struggling to pay for his or her utilities or sleeping exterior of their very own house up to now yr resulting from housing insecurity or different monetary circumstances. Some have needed to sleep on the grounds of the airport for lack of some other possibility. And I can guarantee you, the survey is simply the tip of the iceberg.
That is the brutal actuality shaping our lives right here in Charlotte: We’re working full time for companies which can be doing very nicely, however we’re falling additional and additional behind as they refuse to boost wages. They’re benefiting from staff like me, driving down wages for our communities, all whereas profiting off of Charlotte-area vacationers.
To lift consciousness in regards to the poverty wages at our airport, I and a whole bunch of different CLT airport service staff walked off the job on the Monday of Thanksgiving week for a 24-hour strike.
Happening strike wasn’t a straightforward resolution, however my colleagues and I knew we had no different alternative. I’ve heard my coworkers moved to tears speaking about how they’ll’t pay for groceries or a easy automotive restore. Others have shared how they’re dwelling in a home filled with strangers with their younger baby as a result of it’s all they’ll afford.
To make issues worse, my employer, Prospect, threatened to fireplace us if we went on strike as a result of they claimed we didn’t have the best to strike, which SEIU strongly disputes. Firing us would solely make the issue worse. I’m scared to consider what would occur to me or my coworkers in the event that they went by with the risk simply because we spoke out to demand honest wages. However regardless of our employer’s intimidation ways, we weren’t deterred, as a result of we all know our price. With out wheelchair attendants, trash truck drivers, ramp brokers, and different service staff, planes couldn’t fly and companies couldn’t make their income.
We’re fed up. My neighborhood is struggling as a result of companies together with American Airways—which contracts with Prospect and accounts for 90% of all flights out of CLT, and almost 700 flights per day—are failing to take accountability for the poverty wage and housing disaster they’ve created for Charlotte’s working households. I do know there was quite a lot of consideration given to our state within the final election, so let me inform you what I heard from my mates, household, and neighbors: This economic system isn’t working for us.
On the finish of the day, each passenger deserves to know that the individual serving to them to their gate has a secure place to sleep at evening. And each employee—particularly at our state-of-the-art Charlotte airport—deserves a good shot at an excellent life and a job that pays livable wages.
One thing has to vary. I knew that going to work as typical on Monday wasn’t an possibility. I needed to do one thing to point out the world what our lives are like. I’ll proceed to talk out, even when it’s painful, to share my story and demand a good wage and an excellent job for everybody who makes vacation journey doable. Till air journey companies take motion to pay us dwelling wages, my coworkers and I’ll proceed to prepare our office and take to the streets when crucial to make sure our calls for are heard.
Prospect didn’t straight tackle questions on wages and American Airways didn’t reply to requests for remark.
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