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Vol. 79/No. 1      January 19, 2015

 
(front page)
Fired Delta Air worker wins
support in fight for job
 
BY FRANK FORRESTAL
MINNEAPOLIS — Some 200 ramp workers, flight attendants, union representatives and others attended a Dec. 18 after-work fundraiser to advance the fight to win fired Delta baggage handler Kip Hedges’ job back. Hedges, a leader of efforts to unionize Delta Airlines and the campaign for a $15-per-hour minimum wage for all workers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, was fired Dec. 2. The company claims Hedges made a “disparaging” comment about the company when he said in an online interview that a lot of workers at Delta earn less than $15. He has worked for the airline for 26 years.

A Minnesota unemployment insurance judge ruled Dec. 19 that Hedges was eligible for benefits. “The fact that the judge saw this as a wrongful termination shows that if we had a union I would be back at work now,” Hedges told the Militant, saying his priority “is to help keep the union-organizing campaign going.”

The fundraiser took place at a bar and restaurant near the airport. Fellow baggage handlers and several flight attendants who are also organizing to join the Machinists union, joined members of Service Employees International Union Local 26, Machinists Local 1833, officials of the Minneapolis AFL-CIO and activists in the campaign to raise the minimum wage at the airport. Hedges and the Machinists union are appealing his firing.

Steve Hunter, secretary-treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, presented Hedges with a $5,000 contribution to the fight to get his job back.

“The firing of Kip Hedges is simply outrageous. Freedom of speech, freedom to organize and form a union are still constitutional rights,” Rose Roach, executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association, told the Militant. “Nurses stand in solidarity with our brother Kip.”

“The firing of Delta baggage handler Kip Hedges for organizing to raise wages for airport workers is wrong,” U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison said in a statement protesting Hedges’ firing and supporting the fight for higher wages for airport workers. “Working Americans shouldn’t be intimidated for joining together to demand better working conditions.” Ellison sent a letter of support for Hedges to Delta and to the secretary of labor.

Hedges spoke before the Metropolitan Airports Commission Dec. 15, supporting efforts of workers for contractors at the airport to get paid sick days and urging commissioners to join in denouncing his firing. “I would like you to make it clear to Delta Airlines that they stand alone on this,” he said.

As dozens of workers and their supporters held up signs saying, “Still Fighting for PAID SICK DAYS,” the commission voted unanimously to require airport subcontractors to meet the workers’ demand.

“We are trying to bring airport workers together because so many work for poverty wages and little or no benefits like vacation, sick days and health insurance,” Abera Siyoum, a cart driver in the terminal who works for Air Serv, told the Militant.

Hedges also spoke at the St. Paul AFL-CIO regional labor federation Christmas party and received a $500 donation.

More than 10,000 signatures have been collected on an online petition protesting the firing.
 
 
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