Airline workers to sit-in at National Airport today

On one of the busiest travel days of the year, airline catering workers at Reagan National Airport plan to protest and sit-in today at 5:30 (see Calendar), calling on American Airlines to “take urgent and necessary steps to ensure that workers who cater its flights are able to escape poverty and access medical care.” Wages are as low as $12.15 an hour, just 32% of workers at LSG Sky Chefs at DCA had company healthcare in 2018, and only 10% covered any dependents. Meanwhile, American reported a 2018 annual profit of $1.9 billion. The workers are members of UNITE HERE Local 23; the protest will be the latest in a series of demonstrations by airline catering workers at U.S. airports, including at Dallas-Ft. Worth, where over 50 were arrested in a civil disobedience near American Airlines’ headquarters.

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