JFK, LaGuardia airport contract workers vote to strike Wednesday

The effort – championed by the Daily News’ Fight for Fair Pay campaign – spurred the Port Authority to order raises for all contract workers at area airports.

The workers at the John F. Kennedy global and La Guardia airports include security officers, baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants and other subcontracted employees.

The non-union contract workers are employed by Aviation Safeguards, a division of Herndon, Virginia-based Command Security Corp.

According to SEIU 32BJ, the union that is helping the workers organize, Aviation Safeguards has illegally ordered employees to take off their union buttons in recent months, and threatened to fire them for striking.

Delta Air Lines is working to take proper measures to ensure that its 35,000 customers booked through LaGuardia are not being hit by the strike.

United spokesman Luke Punzenberger said, “We have contingency plans in place”.

Frank Franklin II/AP LaGuardia Airport workers, seen with protestors in January, will go on strike along with their counterparts at Kennedy Airport over alleged violations of their rights.

It’s not clear how – or if – the strike will affect regular airport operations.

The union said in its statement that airport workers were struggling to survive even as “the airlines have been making record profits and the Port Authority has approved billions of dollars to modernise LaGuardia airport”. They aren’t employees of the Transportation Security Administration, which handles airport checkpoint and baggage screening. Wages for security officers are $10.10 an hour “without any meaningful benefits”, according to the Service Employees worldwide Union (SEIU), which is supporting the workers.

Command Security’s Chief Executive Officer Craig Coy advised Reuters the claims were usually untrue and rubbished the corporation is anti-union. They say the safety offerings company has endangered to terminate these guys for preparing for for superior income and more. “This is the United States of America and there’s a process that is well established on how employees go about letting their employer know if they wish to organize and join a union”.

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The Port Authority, which operates both JFK and LaGuardia, added that it will try to avoid disruptions stemming from the strike.