Hundreds of workers at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport spent Tuesday on strike to protest low wages, but officials said it had little impact on flight operations.
The strike, organized by the Service Employees International Union Local 1, involved baggage handlers, janitors, airplane cabin cleaners and wheelchair attendants, many of whom convened for a rally in front of the airport at noon to call for a $15 minimum wage and union rights. Including supporters, the crowd swelled to 1,100, one police officer estimated.
“We’re not asking for special treatment, we’re asking for decent treatment,” Kisha Rivera, 41, who has worked as an airplane cabin cleaner for four months and makes the city’s $10.50 a hour minimum wage, told the cheering crowd. She later corrected herself: “We’re not asking, we’re demanding.”
The Chicago Department of Aviation reported no flight or service disruptions.
The strike at O’Hare was one in a series of nationwide protests held Tuesday that involved a broad swath of nonunionized workers, including airport workers, fast food employees, graduate assistants, child and health care workers and Uber drivers. The protests were organized by the Fight for $15 campaign, led by the Service Employees International Union, on the fourth anniversary of its first strike at McDonald’s restaurants in New York.
While a $15 minimum wage and union rights have been the clarion call for the movement, the nationwide protests planned in 340 cities and 20 airports Tuesday also were meant to signal to newly elected leaders, including President-elect Donald Trump, that the activists would “not back down” from several social justice causes they worried were under threat.
At dawn outside a McDonald’s in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, where some 200 people gathered to kick off the day of protests, people carried signs that read “Stop Killing Black People” and “No Deportations.”
“We don’t want to just be able to survive, we want to thrive,” Adriana Alvarez, a McDonald’s worker who has become a leader in the Fight for $15 effort, said to applause outside the restaurant.
At O’Hare, a long stretch of sidewalk on the departure level between terminals 2 and 3 was clogged with chanting, sign-waving protesters who hooted when cars honked in support as they drove past. Other protesters who couldn’t fit were corralled closer to Terminal 1.
Some 500 O’Hare airport workers, out of about 2,000, voted to participate in the unfair labor practices strike, SEIU Local 1 spokeswoman Izabela Miltko-Ivkovich said. She estimated that’s how many workers were on the strike line but that number could not be independently verified. The striking workers are employed by subcontractors Scrub, Prospect Airport Services and Air Serv, which are hired by the airlines.
Oscar Morales, 51, said it felt good to skip his noon shift and instead don the purple cap worn by all of the striking airport workers in the boisterous crowd. Morales, who works as a gate assistant collecting baggage from customers when airplanes run out of overhead bin space, said it was his first time striking and he was heartened by the turnout, which far exceeded the last strike at the airport in March when only about 60 people walked off the job, he said.
“I enjoy what I do but I just can’t support a family and pay a mortgage on $10.50,” said Morales, who lives with his wife and two children, aged 19 and 17, on the city’s far northwest side.
Morales said he took the airport job, which offers no health or retirement benefits and no paid sick or vacation days, when he was in critical need of a paycheck after his longtime employer shut down two years ago. Morales, a native of Puerto Rico who has lived in Chicago since he was 2, said he worked for 12 years packing orders and working in the returns department at a company that made clothing for chefs, earning $15 an hour plus benefits and a 401(k).
After the company closed, he said he searched for a job while receiving unemployment benefits for six months, but no one called him back.
Morales, who is employed by Prospect Airport Services, said the American Airlines employees who work with him were supportive.
American Airlines spokeswoman Leslie Scott said in an emailed statement that “American supports better pay for workers across the board, but does not believe initiatives should target a specific group or industry. We also respect the right of employees and workers to organize, but we do not get involved in union representation discussions with our vendors and their employees.”
She also said the airline has “been working closely with its vendors to ensure there is no disruption to our operation and at this point we have not seen any impact.”
United also reported no impact to its operation and said its vendors had proper staffing.
Several arriving passengers said service seemed normal to them.
The union said O’Hare workers decided to wait until after the Thanksgiving travel rush to strike so as not to interfere with holiday travelers trying to see their families. They planned to return to work Wednesday, but if their concerns aren’t addressed, “next time we have to strike we will shut down this airport,” SEIU Local 1 president Tom Balanoff said.
A person who picked up the phone at Scrub said the company had no comment. Prospect and Air Serv did not respond to requests for comment.
Though fast-food workers have been the face of Fight for $15, airport workers have raised their profile this year with several protests.
In September SEIU Local 1 held a news conference announcing it had filed 80 wage theft complaints with the city and state alleging workers worked off the clock, didn’t get overtime pay, or, in the case of tipped employees like wheelchair attendants, didn’t earn enough tips to reach the standard minimum wage.
Workers employed by Prospect as wheelchair attendants earn $7.25 to $8.25 an hour, Miltko-Ivkovich said. Cabin cleaners, janitors, security officers and baggage handlers earn $10.50 to $12.
A report released Tuesday by the National Employment Law Project, which supports the Fight for $15 campaign, said that low-wage workers have won $61.5 billion in annual raises since 2012, affecting 19 million people. That figure, based on what workers will receive once the wage hikes are fully phased in, includes state and local minimum wage increases as well as employer-led increases such as at Walmart and Starbucks. Two-thirds of the national gain comes from the $15 minimum wage laws enacted in California, New York, Washington, D.C., and several other cities.
As the cause gains steam, the campaign has swept more low-wage workers into the movement, including, most recently, Uber drivers, who are unusual because they are considered independent contractors.
Darrell Imani, 58, who has been driving Uber and Lyft full time for about three years, said he planned to spend Tuesday protesting rather than driving to advocate for a drivers’ union.
“I love what I’m doing, it’s the best job in the planet,” Imani said. But while he used to make $25 to $30 an hour driving people through ride-hailing apps, his pay has dipped to about $12 an hour now that there are many more drivers on the road and less opportunities for surge pricing. That’s before gas and maintenance expenses and car depreciation.
Uber, which classifies its drivers as independent contractors, said there are 30,000 drivers in Chicago and they made on average $16 an hour last year.
Tuesday’s protests began with acts of civil disobedience. The protesters outside the West Town McDonald’s restaurant sat on the ground at the intersection of Chicago and Damen avenues until police officers asked them to stand and led them away to buses that were waiting.
Police said 55 protesters were detained and cited.
The protesters then moved to Northwestern Memorial Hospital to join housekeeping, transport and food service workers, whose wages usually start at less than $12 an hour, before heading to O’Hare. Some protesters popped into McDonald’s for some breakfast before moving on.
aelejalderuiz@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @alexiaer
