To: Patrick Foye, Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Port Authority: MLK Day is a Holiday
Airport Workers United
Please use your authority as the head of the Port Authority to grant passenger service workers at New York area airports a paid holiday on Martin Luther King Day on January 20, 2014.
Why is this important?
I am 26-years-old and I live in East New York. I am a single mother of two daughters—Melissa, who's 4 and Aalisha, 6-years-old. I work as a terminal cleaner for Airway Cleaners, a contractor for American Airlines in Terminal 8 at JFK Airport. I make $7.90 an hour with no benefits. My pay does not begin to cover my bills or food for me and my daughters.
I was previously on public assistance and the job center sent me to an agency for airport jobs. It takes two of my paychecks to cover just the electric bill. By the time I pay for daycare for my daughters and transportation to work, I have nothing left over. Every month, I juggle the bills for the all my family's other expenses, seeing what I can afford not to pay until the next month.
One night, after carrying one of those garbage bags at work, my back was in so much pain. They said it was back spasms. I was incapacitated for the rest of the night. It’s been a nightmare trying to recover from that, especially with no health care benefits.
There are many, many workers at New York area’s three airports who are in the same boat as I am. This is no way to live. We deserve human dignity. We deserve respect.
Contractors hired by airlines and terminal operators at New York area airports pay passenger service workers at the airports, poverty wages. My coworkers and I get little or no health care. Most of us don’t get paid holidays, vacation time and sick days. For over a year we have been saying we cannot support our families under these conditions but our complaints have fallen on deaf ears.
January 20, 2014 is Martin Luther King Day -- a federal holiday. Yet this holiday is not recognized by my employer.
Dr. King died supporting Memphis sanitation workers who were working under deplorable conditions and making what would be $11.41 per hour today. 46 years after Dr, King’s death, most airport passenger service workers work under deplorable conditions and earn just $8 per hour with little or no benefits.
As we fight for better pay and working conditions, we demand that MLK Day 2014 be declared a paid holiday for all airport workers. If you support us, please stand with us by signing my petition.
I was previously on public assistance and the job center sent me to an agency for airport jobs. It takes two of my paychecks to cover just the electric bill. By the time I pay for daycare for my daughters and transportation to work, I have nothing left over. Every month, I juggle the bills for the all my family's other expenses, seeing what I can afford not to pay until the next month.
One night, after carrying one of those garbage bags at work, my back was in so much pain. They said it was back spasms. I was incapacitated for the rest of the night. It’s been a nightmare trying to recover from that, especially with no health care benefits.
There are many, many workers at New York area’s three airports who are in the same boat as I am. This is no way to live. We deserve human dignity. We deserve respect.
Contractors hired by airlines and terminal operators at New York area airports pay passenger service workers at the airports, poverty wages. My coworkers and I get little or no health care. Most of us don’t get paid holidays, vacation time and sick days. For over a year we have been saying we cannot support our families under these conditions but our complaints have fallen on deaf ears.
January 20, 2014 is Martin Luther King Day -- a federal holiday. Yet this holiday is not recognized by my employer.
Dr. King died supporting Memphis sanitation workers who were working under deplorable conditions and making what would be $11.41 per hour today. 46 years after Dr, King’s death, most airport passenger service workers work under deplorable conditions and earn just $8 per hour with little or no benefits.
As we fight for better pay and working conditions, we demand that MLK Day 2014 be declared a paid holiday for all airport workers. If you support us, please stand with us by signing my petition.
