On the Heels of Eulen Airport Workers Strikes at JFK and Fort Lauderdale,Senators Booker and Brown Take Aim at the Airline Industry’s Outsourcing Practices
WASHINGTON, D.C. – 32BJ SEIU today commended U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) for reintroducing The Airline Accountability Act, a bill which targets the airline industry’s practice of outsourcing labor to low-road contractors that do not always follow wage and labor laws.
“32BJ commends Senators Booker and Brown for introducing the Airline Accountability Act today,” said Kyle Bragg, president of 32BJ SEIU, which represents 12,000 airport workers, and has worked to improve wage and conditions for tens of thousands of airport workers from Boston to Miami.
“The low-road contracting system at our nation’s airports has been hurting working people and their families for too long. While airport workers have come together, organized and forced their employers to raise wages and follow safety regulations, there are still bad actors like the contractor Eulen America which refuse to follow the law and respect workers’ rights,” added Bragg. “Companies like Eulen America are a prime example of why this bill is urgently needed.”
The bill was reintroduced just three days after Eulen workers at JFK went on strike to protest the company violating workers’ right to organize. Just last week Senator Booker met with Newark employees of Eulen America, a Spain-based subcontractor for American Airlines that is under investigation for labor violations including wage theft.
Eulen America especially has seen a drumbeat of complaints from employees not just in the New York region airports, but also in Florida and Washington, D.C. In September, Eulen workers at the Fort Lauderdale Airport also went on strike to protest the unjust firing of three immigrant union activists, including the mother of a disabled child, a formerly homeless woman, and a graduate student who was putting himself through college.
With more than 175,000 members in 11 states, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country.
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