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Airport: Flights unaffected by workers' protest

Employees of an airport subcontractor staged a one-day strike at Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday, but the picketing did not disrupt flights. Airlines reported normal operations, an airport spokesman said.

Workers with PrimeFlight at Philadelphia International Airport stage a protest outside terminal on Thursday, November 20, 2014. ( ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER )
Workers with PrimeFlight at Philadelphia International Airport stage a protest outside terminal on Thursday, November 20, 2014. ( ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER )Read moreDN

Employees of an airport subcontractor staged a one-day strike at Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday, but the picketing did not disrupt flights. Airlines reported normal operations, an airport spokesman said.

Picketing by several dozen employees of Prime Flight Aviation Services began at 5 a.m. and continued until about 2 p.m. outside the Terminal B ticketing area for US Airways, the city's largest airline and now part of American Airlines Group.

Several members of City Council voiced concern Thursday that Prime Flight employees would not be allowed to return to their posts Friday. Council passed a resolution urging the airport to "facilitate a resolution to the labor dispute," and promising to exercise its own powers to regulate airport operations if Prime Flight retaliated by not letting the striking employees return.

The workers earn between $7.25 and $8 an hour with no health insurance or paid sick days.

In May, Philadelphia voters approved an amendment to the Home Rule Charter to raise the hourly wage to $10.88 for employees hired by subcontractors with city contracts and leases.

The workers, who are not unionized, say the city must now enforce it.

Misha Williams, 23, said she was fired this month after she led a delegation to ask her employer when the wage increase would go into effect.

Prime Flight, based in Nashville, did not respond to several requests for comment.

Rabbi Avi Winokur of Society Hill Synagogue in Center City spoke to the striking workers. His congregation is part of a coalition of faith and community groups, called POWER, that has been outspoken on behalf of low-paid subcontracted employees at the airport.

"I'm here on behalf of these people's struggle for a living wage, a fair wage, to be treated like human beings," Winokur said.

Alfred Williams, 27, a bag handler who works for Prime Flight, said his job includes taking passengers' checked bags from behind the ticket counters, scanning them, and putting them on a conveyor belt or truck, from which airline workers load them onto planes.

The bag handlers also assist passengers on arriving international flights and travelers at baggage-claim carousels who need help getting luggage to the curb, a taxi, or a car. "We want fair wages, we want benefits, and we want respect," Williams said.

Victoria Lupica, spokeswoman for US Airways and American, said some Prime Flight employees were working Thursday despite the protest.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 32BJ local has been trying to unionize about 2,000 Philadelphia airport service workers, including skycaps, baggage handlers, and wheelchair attendants who work for contractors, including Prime Flight and Prospect Aviation Services.

Mayor Nutter in May signed an executive order that raised the minimum wage for employees hired by city contractors and subcontractors to $12 an hour in January 2015.