SAN FRANCISCO — Airline cabin cleaners picketed at the San Francisco International Airport Oct. 22 against the suspension of 14 workers by Unifi, the contractor that hires cleaners for United Airlines planes.
The suspended workers, members of SEIU United Service Workers West, had been part of a delegation that tried to meet with management to protest unsanitary working conditions, including cockroach infestation on lift trucks and vans that transport the workers and supplies. The company responded by suspending them without pay and taking away their airport access badges.
The unionists are demanding all 14 be reinstated. They also demand Unifi pay the workers over $1 million in back wages, owed to them because hours of work guaranteed in the union contract were cut.
“I wasn’t even part of the delegation to meet with management. I was just nearby and they suspended me,” Hasan Hassar told the Militant. Like most of his co-workers, he said he’s working two jobs to try and make enough money to live on.
Pay and conditions of baggage handlers, mechanics and other airline workers have been under attack for years as United and other airline bosses have outsourced their jobs.
As a former United Airlines cabin cleaner, this Militant worker-correspondent can attest to the fact we once had a guaranteed 40-hour week, paid lunch and full medical coverage from the day we hired on, as well as no forced overtime. This was won in earlier union struggles.
Since then, as the capitalist economic crisis deepened, companies like United responded by attacking our wages and working conditions and massively contracting out work.
One of those joining the picket line was machinist Mike Albertin, who works at United’s maintenance base at the airport. He said 80% of their work has been outsourced to contractors abroad. “I’m not saying those workers shouldn’t have the jobs, but they are nonunion,” he said. “What we need is more unity. That’s why I’m here supporting these workers today.”