Using the backdrop of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, some 200 labor advocates and Logan International Airport workers rallied at the Boston airport Monday to call for a $15-an-hour minimum wage for airport workers.
Using the backdrop of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, some 200 labor advocates and Logan International Airport workers rallied at the Boston airport Monday to call for a $15-an-hour minimum wage for airport workers.
Already, Logan’s operator, the Massachusetts Port Authority, mandates a $1-an-hour higher minimum wage than the state. But “it’s still not enough” to keep workers over the poverty line, said Jonathan Cornier, who said he works for G2 Secure Staff handling wheelchairs at the Alaska Airlines terminal and providing security in different terminals. One of the big challenges for making a living, Cornier said, is not knowing when he’ll get assigned 40 hours of work a week. “If I’m lucky, 50. If I’m unlucky, 30, 24.’’
“We have to do two jobs to survive,’’ said Obed George, who’s worked in luggage handling and restaurant operations at the airport and said he’s now with Flight Services & Systems. “When you get two jobs, you’re tired, you cannot enjoy [time] with your family or your friends or whatever.’’
Demonstrators cast the call for higher pay as of a piece with the social and economic justice King advocated for during his lifetime as a civil-rights leader. “We stand here today in the same spirit of Martin Luther King, in the spirit of solidarity to fight for what's right,’’ said Chelsea City Councilor Damali Vidot.
Ultimately, in an act of planned civil disobedience, six ralliers -- including SEIU district director Roxana Rivera -- were arrested by Massachusetts State Police troopers without incident and taken into custody to be arraigned on charges of trespassing after the State Police ordered ralliers to disperse from Terminal E.
Massport signaled it would be willing to go along with another increase in the minimum wage at Logan, saying in a statement: “Massport is not inclined to oppose proposed legislation on Beacon Hill that would raise airport minimum wages to $15 per hour, but we respect that the decision is up to the state Legislature and that perhaps any raise should apply to all workers, not just airport workers … Massport supports higher wages for all workers a the airport.’’
With reports by the state Department of Transportation showing that Logan generates close to $9 billion a year in economic activity, advocates of the higher wage said Monday’s protests show a major injustice at the heart of an economic engine for New England.
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“These workers who make sure these airports run, many of them live in poverty, have a really hard time paying rent, have a really hard time putting food on the table for their families,’’ said Eugenio Villasante of the Service Employees International Union 32BJ unit. “We are still fighting the same fight for economic justice, 50 years after Doctor King was assassinated.’’
