The actions will demand, "Justice for immigrant airport workers, safety for passengers." They have been called by a coalition of several organizations, including Service Employees International Union Local 790, Filipinos for Affirmative Action, Philip Vera Cruz Justice Project, San Francisco Labor Executive Council, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

The rallies and press conferences will protest the Aviation and Transportation Act signed by U.S. president George Bush in November. The law places airport security under federal authority and requires all workers who screen baggage to be U.S. citizens.

The Transportation Security Administration is slated to take over airport security February 19 and will have until next November to make sure all screeners are citizens. Nationwide, about 15 to 25 percent of these workers are noncitizens. At San Francisco airport, about 800 workers, or 80 percent of those employed as screeners, are noncitizens--the majority Filipino.

In a fact sheet about the fight, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) states that immigrant status "has nothing to do with a worker's ability to do his or her job.... The reason many airport screeners are immigrants is that these jobs are difficult, low-wage labor traditionally passed over by U.S. citizens."

Up to now the baggage screening has been carried out by private security companies. The SEIU notes that although baggage screening "is stressful and requires constant worker attention, most security companies pay less than $6 an hour."

Nine workers employed at the Los Angeles and San Francisco airports filed suit against the federal government to stop the implementation of the citizenship requirement. The government has 60 days to respond.

Ruby Gonzales Boja, one of the plaintiffs, has worked for five years as a screener for International Total Services at the San Francisco airport. "This is very unfair for people like me who worked there for a long time," she told the Militant. "Some have even worked there for 15 or 25 years." The suit is "for everybody who works there. I stand [as a plaintiff] on behalf of my co-workers because we are one union," she added.

The baggage screeners at the San Francisco airport joined SEIU Local 790 a year ago.

Rollande Girard is a garment worker.  
 
 
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