New report highlights poverty jobs at Philadelphia Airport and need to raise wage and benefit standards to boost regional economy
Many passenger service workers at the Philadelphia International Airport do not reap the benefits of working at the region's economic powerhouse despite performing vital services that make the airport run, according to findings in a new report by the grassroots group Fight for Philly.
Fight for Philly, which seeks to empower Philadelphia families to take action in their own communities, is releasing today "Raising the Bar: Ensuring That Airport Expansion Lifts All of Philadelphia." The report offers prescriptions for the economic health of the city and region that include raising wages and benefits for these low-income airport workers.
Download the full report here.
The airport, a major economic engine for the city and region, supports over 141,000 jobs in the Philadelphia region and brings more than $14 billion in economic activity to the area, according to "Raising the Bar." But, to cut costs, airlines at the airport long ago outsourced passenger service jobs to low-bid contractors. Take US Airways, the dominant carrier at the airport, as an example. It boasted record profits of over $306 million for just the second quarter this year.
As powerful interests in Washington, D.C., debate the so-called fiscal cliff that the nation's economy is on while resisting making the rich pay their fair share of taxes, airport workers who provide these vital services to airlines—cleaning terminals and aircraft, pushing wheelchairs, handling baggage, and performing security services to keep passengers safe—make as little as $7.25 an hour with no access to affordable health benefits, including sick days.
The result is that workers earn so little they are unable to provide for their families and some even have to resort taxpayer-funded public assistance for rent, health care and food.
Juan Lantigua, a security officer for Aviation Safeguards, makes $8 an hour with no benefits, which is a dicey situation for a diabetic.
"My family relies on public health insurance and food stamps to survive," he said. "I was recently in the hospital and have thousands of dollars in bills that I can't pay. If my health issues aren't managed I'm dead and my wife and daughter will be on the street. We deserve time off, benefits, and better pay."
A key recommendation of "Raising the Bar" is to implement at the airport the 21st Century Minimum Wage and Benefits Standard, the city living wage law that guarantees that workers hired by the city or by companies with direct city contracts make 150 percent of the federal minimum wage, or $10.88, plus paid sick days. Doing so would result in increased earnings and more jobs for all Philadelphians, according to the report.
"We're looking to make this a first-class airport," said Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, chairman of the Transportation Committee. "I think the expansion is a great opportunity to provide quality jobs and living wages that enable Philadelphians to support their families."
Fight for Philly is part of a coalition of community groups, including Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower & Rebuild (POWER), UNITE HERE and SEIU 32BJ to join Philadelphia airport workers at a community forum for good jobs at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17 at the Grace Christian Fellowship, 6208 Grays Avenue, Philadelphia.
+ Top Story
Philadelphia officials have identified an inspector who fatally shot himself a week after a building collapse that killed six people as a dedicated 16-year veteran. Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison says 52-year-old inspector Ronald Wagenhoffer was found dead in his truck Wednesday night with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
District Attorney Seth Williams said the scope and depth of the grand jury process will help prosecutors, the city and others to "completely and appropriately investigate" what happened when a downtown building under demolition collapsed onto a neighboring Salvation Army Thrift Store, killing two employees and four customers.
To know the Rev. Dr. G. Daniel Jones, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Germantown, is to love him. Recently, about 700 people came to the church to show him the love and to wish him a happy retirement from the church that he's served for 31 years. Jones, 73, will become Pastor Emeritus of the church in July.
According to AAA, the summer travel season begins this weekend, when 34.8 million Americans will travel 50 or more miles from home over the Memorial Day holiday. Nine out of ten travelers will take to the nation’s highways, according to the AAA forecast released this week.
One cannot comprehend the level of danger that would lead a mother to send her child away to ensure his safety. But that is what Grace Sankoh did 12 years ago when she helped her son, Adams Kamara Daramy, flee war-torn Sierra Leone at the age of 6 to seek refuge in the United States.
State Sen. Anthony H. Williams put another solution on the table today for children in Philadelphia, offering to boost the school district’s coffers with a pair of bills that would increase the liquor-by-the-drink tax and authorize a cigarette tax for the city.
When then-Sen. Barack Obama was on the campaign trail, there was wailing and gnashing of teeth on White supremacist websites around the world due to the perception that a Black man with the power of the Presidency would enslave whites as a first official act.