Baggage handlers, wheel chair attendants, and security screeners at Argenbright Security Inc. had voted overwhelmingly to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), adding 600 workers to the hundreds who have joined that union or the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union in the past year at companies with contracts at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

In response, three airlines--Northwest, Air Canada, and Hawaiian--fired 200 soon-to-be-union workers June 24, a week before the vote, by terminating their contract with Argenbright and contracting Aviation Safeguards, another nonunion outfit.

The SEIU members counterattacked with several airport demonstrations, joined by a handful of other unionists, and packed hearings of the Los Angles City Council. Under this pressure, the City Council and the Airport Commission threatened to pull Northwest's operating permit at the airport if it did not instruct the new contractor to hire all the former employees at Argenbright. The airlines felt compelled to do so.

Aviation Safeguards had used an "English language proficiency test" to screen out scores of former Argenbright workers, while not giving the test to 120 new employees it hired. The July 20 Daily Breeze quoted Tommy Woo, a baggage handler with two years' service who was fired after he failed the 25-question test even though he speaks good English. "I haven't taken one of these tests for thirty years," he said. "I felt this was not fair."

The rehired workers, who are now in the union and who previously were paid between $5.75 and $6.20 an hour, will receive $7.72 per hour with benefits or $8.97 perhour without benefits, as stipulated under the city's Living Wage law.

One worker, Dionicia Robinson, said in an interview, "This victory is in the right direction. All workers will get an interview, with first preference to those who are not working another job. Most want to come back to the airport, where we have a relation with other workers."

"The biggest victors and those most responsible for the victory were the workers who said we are not going away," said Jono Shaffer, campaign director for "Respect at LAX," a coalition of unions, clergy, and community groups that has mobilized support for the airport workers.

Mark Friedman is a member of the International Association of Machinists at Los Angeles International Airport.