What: Rally and delegation to JetBlue at JFK airport
When: Thursday October 29th
Where: JFK airport, Terminal 5
Airport workers who work for JetBlue’s subcontractors Roma and Ultimate Aircraft at JFK Airport will rally with their supporters including clergy, elected officials and community supporters on Thursday. At the same time around the country, contracted airport workers will hold coordinated actions at major airports to call on their employers and the airlines they serve to put an end to the horrors taking place at our nation’s airports.
Bedbugs have been a longstanding problem for cabin cleaners who work for JetBlue’s subcontractor Ultimate Aircraft at JFK airport.
“I went to the company and told them there were bed bugs in the vans two years ago and showed them my arms were covered in bites. They did nothing,” said Damason Majia a cabin cleaner who works for JetBlue’s subcontractor Ultimate Aircraft at JFK airport.
Earlier this summer airport workers from Ultimate Aircraft again told their employer there were bed bugs in the vans that take cabin cleaners to and from the planes they clean. The cleaners again showed their managers their bites and provided pictures of the bugs. After Ultimate Aircraft cleaners filed complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for various health and safety violations, Ultimate Aircraft announced that the vans would finally be fumigated for bed bugs. Workers are not sure if this has happened yet.
Bedbugs top a long list of issues that airport workers at JFK are calling “scary” this Halloween season. Potentially unsafe vans for workers to travel in, inadequate cleaning materials like gloves, unaffordable heath care, a lack of paid sick and vacation days and low wages that keep airport worker’s families and communities in poverty are included in this list.