LAX Workers Mark the Start of the Normally Busy 4th of July Holiday by Calling on Airlines to Value Lives Over Profits
Airport workers take large car caravan to United Airlines to demand enforcement of PPE, social distancing, and safe staffing to stop the spread of Coronavirus
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, June 30, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As the country pushes for a return to normal, LAX workers have a stark warning for travelers: airlines are not taking all of the precautions necessary to protect workers and passengers. Cabin cleaners, janitors, baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants, airline catering workers and concession workers are speaking out about the necessity for stronger enforcement on PPE, social distancing, and safe staffing to stop the spread of coronavirus at the airport.
Airline workers have been speaking out about problems at the airport as positive cases continue to grow among LAX workers. Janitors at LAX report that their employers still are not providing them with proper Personal Protective Equipment even while social distancing remains impossible on the job. Cabin cleaners report being ordered onto planes before passengers deplane. Cabin cleaners also report still being asked to do “quick turns” where planes are cleaned in under ten minutes and almost no disinfecting is done between flights. Many of the issues reported by workers are in direct violation of CDC guidelines. People are going to work scared and are demanding that airlines do something about it.
Service workers at the airport are primarily people of color and immigrants who have spoken out and won better wages through their unions, SEIU and UNITE HERE. These same communities are also being hardest hit by the pandemic. The report “Essential But Vulnerable: California Airport Workers in Crisis” details the ways that the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 are not being felt equally, due to existing racial and socioeconomic inequalities. View and Download the Report: https://bit.ly/EssentialButVulnerable.1
Service Workers at LAX are driving in a caravan around the airport today calling on airlines like United and Southwest to take responsibility for the health and safety of passengers and contracted airline workers. They are demanding that the airport administration do whatever it takes to ensure companies operating at the airport adhere to necessary safety precautions.
Airport service workers will drive a protest caravan from Watts, ground zero in the movement for police brutality, to show support for the growing movement for Black Lives Matter and then proceed up century Boulevard to LAX, circling the terminals, passing LAWA headquarters and ending at United Airlines Cargo. They will deliver bread and roses which have come to signify dignified working conditions in the labor movement.
Who: Over 100 airport workers including union members from UNITE HERE and SEIU-USWW.
What: Workers will gather at Ted Watkins Park at 10:15 am to decorate their cars and prepare for the caravan. LAX workers will be available to interview at the park until 10:45 before the caravan starts. LAX workers will also be available for interview by phone throughout the day.
When: Wednesday, July 1st at 10:15 am
Where: Ted Watkins Park on the Corner of Century Blvd. and Central Ave., Los Angeles
SEIU United Service Workers West represents more than 45,000 janitors, security officers, airport service workers, and other property service workers across California.
Stephen Boardman
SEIU United Service Workers West
+1 617-823-3305
email us here
1 http://bit.ly/EssentialButVulnerable.