Airport layoffs anger union, Queens officials

JFK Airport workers and 32BJ SEIU members picketing last summer for better working conditions. Photo via 32BJ SEIU

By Victoria Merlino

As airlines lobby for a nearly $60 billion bailout from the federal government, contracted airport workers are being hit with massive layoffs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The 32BJ SEIU union, which represents airport workers, estimates that thousands of subcontracted cabin cleaners, terminal cleaners, customer service, baggage claim and wheelchair attendants at JFK Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty Airport have been laid off so far as the illness spreads and travel grinds to a halt.

New York City and its suburbs have one of the fastest growing outbreaks of COVID-19 in the world, accounting for 5 percent of total positive cases worldwide. 

32BJ SEIU President Kyle Bragg denounced a $60 billion request that airlines made of the government because it does not extend relief to laid off workers. Bragg asked that more be done for contracted airport workers, and that they too be included in a federal bailout. 

“We cannot just do the same old trick of opening up the bailout spigot to reward wealthy airline corporations while leaving the most vulnerable workers out in the cold,” Bragg said. “These workers earn the least yet risk themselves the most. Many lack healthcare to even care for themselves in the face of this pandemic.”

State Sen. Michael Gianaris, and Councilmembers Francisco Moya and Donovan Richards, joined Bragg in calling for more monetary compensation for frontline airport workers. 

“We should flip the script that says corporations deserve to be showered with money while workers are stranded in the face of challenges,” Richards said. “Who needs relief more, hard-working New Yorkers who live paycheck to paycheck yet sacrifice the most, or profitable corporations that pay them as little as they could get away with?”

“New Yorkers need relief,” he added. “Members of our communities need relief.”