The NYPD arrested 32 people at a rally in support of airline workers outside LaGuardia Airport yesterday, with City Council members and Representative Charles B. Rangel included in the police roundup.
Hundreds of people attended yesterday's protest, which was organized by Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, calling for contracted airline workers to receive Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a paid day off. The union and supporters have also been campaigning for better wages and benefits for the workers, many of whom are severely underpaid and overworked. Protesters, armed with signs and banners marched across the 94th Street and Ditmars Boulevard bridge, heading to LaGuardia. "Some employees have to go to food pantries to support their families. Thousands live in poverty,” Hector Figueroa, 32BJ's president, told the Daily News.
Rangel and nine City Council members were arrested, including Ydanis Rodriguez, Mark Levine, Jimmy Van Bramer, Inez Dickens and Antonio Reynoso; they were issued summonses for obstructing vehicular traffic and disorderly conduct after refusing to leave a roadway, according to authorities. "I'm ready to get put in jail today so that everyone will know that we're going to fight for decent wages, we're going to fight for sick pay [and] we're going to fight for pensions," Rangel said in a speech to protestors just prior to the march.
Many airline workers such as security guards, bag haulers and cabin cleaners are not hired directly by airlines, but are contracted by outside vendors who pay them close to minimum wage and do not offer paid days off, health insurance and other benefits, and supporters have been urging the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to have more oversight on the contracting companies.
The Port Authority tells us in a statement: "The Port Authority supports making Martin Luther King Day a paid holiday for airport workers as it is for New York, New Jersey and Port Authority employees. We have had productive discussions with 32BJ and we continue to have discussions with the union, airlines, and other airport stakeholders regarding this issue."
