Contract workers plan stoppage at PHL

Up to 125 workers at Philadelphia International Airport are planning a work stoppage Thursday in protest of what they say are poor wages and working conditions.

The employees of aviation contractor PrimeFlight handle ground-transportation duties for about 10 airlines, including tasks such as wheelchair assistance and curbside check-in.

The extent to which the planned job action may affect travelers was not immediately clear. Several airlines said they were taking steps to ensure that customers would be unaffected.

But the airport spokeswoman said Wednesday evening that officials were still contacting airlines that use PrimeFlight workers to see whether they could cover for those who do not clock in Thursday.

"We are in ongoing communication with our airlines to assess any potential impact to airport operations," Mary Flannery said, "and will continue to monitor the situation closely."

Philadelphia is one of about a dozen airports, including Los Angeles International and New York's LaGuardia and JFK, where workers this week were protesting the effect of airlines' subcontracting work.

Gabe Morgan, the state director of SEIU 32BJ - a section of the Service Employees International Union - announced the planned Philadelphia work stoppage Wednesday and said more than 2,000 nonunion workers at the city's airport were making substandard wages. Some earn $7.25 an hour, currently the federal minimum wage.

Morgan called the planned action a strike. He said that the immediate goal was not to disrupt travel, but that it could be expanded to other contractors if employees did not feel they had been heard.

"This is much more the workers trying to send a message. We've been complaining. We've been trying to talk," he said. "And instead, what's happening is, we're being threatened and intimidated."

Mayor Nutter's spokesman Mark McDonald deferred questions to the airport. PrimeFlight, based in Nashville, did not reply to several requests for comment.

A spokesman for Southwest Airlines said PrimeFlight employees handled the company's curbside and wheelchair service in Philadelphia. He was unsure whether curbside check-in would be covered by other workers if PrimeFlight employees did not come to work Thursday, but said the airline's main check-in counter would be operating normally.

A spokesman for United Airlines, which also contracts with PrimeFlight, said the airline was taking steps to ensure adequate staffing and added that it has held vendors to high standards.

Victoria Lupica, spokeswoman for American Airlines and US Airways, which have merged, said about 50 PrimeFlight employees were scheduled to work for the two airlines Thursday at the airport.

Lupica emphasized that those employees did not load bags on and off planes, but did help customers with their bags at check-in and at baggage claim. She said their duties could be covered by others.

"The customers won't be impacted at all," she said, "nor will the operations."

Sarina Santos, who said she is paid $7.25 an hour as a PrimeFlight employee with US Airways, was not so certain her absence would go unnoticed. Santos said she mostly worked behind the ticketing counter shuttling bags from travelers onto the conveyor belts. She said other PrimeFlight employees gathered bags left at baggage claim and helped X-ray checked bags.

"A bag that needs to be scanned by TSA, we take it to TSA," said Santos, a mother of four, who lives in North Philadelphia, referring to the Transportation Security Administration. "How is that bag going to get to TSA?"

The planned stoppage was announced Wednesday at a hearing in which a City Council committee was considering legislation aimed at improving workers' situation at the airport, where some employees have long pushed for higher pay.

Nutter in May signed an executive order that raised the minimum wage for employees hired by airport subcontractors to $10.88 an hour. Many employees say they have still not seen their pay increase because the order applies to bids or proposals issued after May 20. (Their wages are to increase to $12 an hour in July.)

The legislation heard Wednesday, which was introduced by Councilman Wilson Goode Jr. and had passed out of committee, would mandate that airlines contract with companies that have "labor-peace agreements," which require nonconfrontational resolution of disputes with employees.

Misha Williams told the Council hearing that she had been fired from her job as a PrimeFlight wheelchair assistant this month after she led a group of employees in a protest at the company's office. As she wiped away tears and supporters in the audience encouraged her with cheers of "be strong," Williams said the legislation would give employees a voice.

"PrimeFlight should not be able to treat us this way," she said. "I liked my job, and I want it back."

James Tyrrell, the airport's deputy director of aviation, testified that a requirement for a "labor-peace agreement" would likely raise operating costs for airlines. The airport is negotiating new lease agreements with its airlines that will take effect July 1. Tyrrell said it could be "disastrous" if companies decided not to sign a new lease and instead paid for their airport use piecemeal.

An airline industry analyst Wednesday told Council that "labor-peace agreements" could reduce the risk of lost revenue and were already in place in about a dozen other airports.