“We’re there, but we’re not seen”: Inside the dangerous jobs of airline industry workers
Shandolyn Lewis and her daughter, Ariana. Credit: UNITE HERE.
Shandolyn Lewis is an airline catering worker at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. During her day, she works in an industrial cooler; sometimes, by the end of her shift she can hardly feel her fingers. She’s one of many catering workers that make the airline industry function, ensuring that food, beverages, and supplies make it on to flights.
Lewis doesn’t work for the airlines, though—at least, not technically. She works for LSG Sky Chefs, a subsidiary holding company for German air carrier Lufthansa. LSG Sky Chefs is like many corporations within the airline industry: it exists primarily to provide subcontracted services such as catering for “legacy carriers” like American, Delta, and United. The problem isn’t restricted to “below-wing” workers, and isn’t just through subcontracting to third party carriers. Legacy carriers increasingly operate flights through regional subsidiaries like Piedmont, as well.
Like many of her coworkers, Lewis—a member of UNITE HERE Local 24—is living paycheck to paycheck. According to information provided by UNITE HERE, 74% of airline catering workers in Detroit make under $15 an hour; many rely on government funded programs to get by. That’s not a problem unique to Detroit: a national survey conducted by UNITE HERE revealed that a majority of airline catering workers are paid under $15 an hour, and a quarter make under $12 an hour.
Lewis has health issues; so does her 13 year old daughter Ariana, who suffers from asthma. To get employer-sponsored health insurance, she pays about $500 a month out of pocket—over a fifth of the monthly gross income for a full time worker making $15 an hour. That’s not the end of it, though: she has additional costs like copays every time she uses her healthcare. After one emergency room visit, she received a $3,000 bill. Because of that, she’s delaying necessary surgery while she saves up. Not only does she need to pay for the procedure, she needs to save to afford missing work, as she only gets three paid sick days.
To her, the difference between having affordable healthcare, and not: being healthy, having a savings account, and being able to provide for her daughter now and in the future.
Shandolyn is one of tens of thousands of airline industry workers—ramp workers, catering workers, cabin cleaners, and others—who face poverty wages, unaffordable healthcare, and dangerous working conditions in the airline industry.
The results can be horrific. A subcontracted airline worker and member of CWA, Kendrick Hudson, died on the job in Charlotte, North Carolina; the incident is currently under investigation. Esteban Barrios, an airport worker for Eulen America (a subsidiary of Spanish company Grupo Eulen) in Miami and a member of SEIU 32BJ, describes similarly dangerous working conditions.
“I know someone whose foot was run over by a truck,” according to Barrios. “I know someone else who got a herniated disc after falling on the job, and the next day lifted hundreds of bags.” In November of 2019, OSHA—after an exhaustive investigation that discovered health and safety violations like cockroach-infested kitchens and exposure to Hepatitis B—slapped Eulen America with substantial fines.
As if the dangers weren’t enough, other basic aspects of safe working conditions—like access to water, especially crucial in Miami heat—aren’t guaranteed. “We don’t have easy access to drinking water; sometimes we’re physically sick from lack of access to water,” says Barrios. “My whole body hurts[.]” According to OSHA’s findings against Eulen, exposure to excessive heat can lead to "development of serious heat-related illnesses such as, but not limited to, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and death."
A new report written by labor economist Brian Callaci and commissioned by CWA alleges dangerous working conditions and lax accountability are the new normal in the airline industry. Beginning with deregulation of the airline industry in 1979, airlines have increasingly subcontracted in-house support work to third-party firms (many of them foreign-owned like LSG Sky Chefs and Eulen America) with the mandate to cut costs and increase corporate profitability. That process has accelerated in the past two decades, with the share of industry employment controlled by outsourced firms rising from 19% to 30% between 2001 and 2018.
The problem isn’t just found in below-wing ground work. Regional subsidiaries carry an increasing share of routes for legacy carriers; even flights booked by customers through a legacy carrier may be operated by a regional subsidiary. Piedmont Airlines, a regional airline and wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines, is one such example. Flight attendants for regional airlines like Piedmont make less on average than flight attendants at legacy carriers like American; according to Taylor Garland, a spokesperson for AFA-CWA (the affiliate of CWA that represents flight attendants), cabin workers at regional airlines “make on average 45 percent less than Flight Attendants working at mainline carriers American, Delta, United, and Alaska.”
For AFA-CWA, this is unacceptable. “The aviation scam of the century is undervaluing Flight Attendants and other workers at regionals who provide the backbone service to mainline networks,” according to Garland. “This is unacceptable and mainline carriers must be held accountable. All aviation workers deserve a living wage.”
The airline industry is a microcosm of a broader trend called “fissuring”—the creation of complex arrangements of contracted, subcontracted, and subsidiary work giving corporations greater control over their operations and ensuring workers have less collective power. Elements of “fissuring” have recently been the subject of heated political debate; the Obama-era NLRB decision, Browning-Ferris, cracked down on the standard for determining “joint employment,” which obligates a parent company to (in some circumstances) be a party to bargaining with unions along with their contractors. The Browning-Ferris decision was overruled by the Trump Labor Board. AB5 in California addressed other elements of fissuring (such as “independent contractor” arrangements), and New Jersey and New York are currently drafting legislation strengthening regulations.
What’s the result of fissuring in the airline industry? According to workers and unions, it’s a race to the bottom. While wages for some workers directly employed by legacy carriers have increased, already below-average wages for workers for regional subsidiaries and third-party contractors have often remained stagnant. Meanwhile, Delta reported its tenth straight quarter of profit, raking in over $1.12 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019. According to Shandolyn, the result is demoralizing—”We’re there, but we’re not seen.”
Unions like hers—UNITE HERE—have had enough.
UNITE HERE’s airline catering workers in over thirty-two cities nationwide have voted overwhelmingly to strike once released from federal mediation. They followed up their strike vote with nationwide direct action at airports the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving, with elected politicians joining them on pickets; workers and allies took arrest in acts of civil disobedience. Their message has been clear: one job should be enough, and every worker deserves the right to affordable healthcare.
Congress is taking notice.
On January 15th, the House Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation held hearings on working conditions in the airline history: the first in three decades. Union workers testified to low wages, safety issues, and a culture of intimidation in the airline industry. Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins described a worksite visit where she and workers were followed by a Eulen-employed supervisor—described by Chair Rep. DeFazio (D-OR) as a “Eulen corporate minion”—who claimed the county-owned airport was “private property.”
Workers are looking for solutions. Donielle Prophete, a passenger service agent for Piedmont Airlines and Vice President of CWA Local 3645, told Congress that workers hope the House continues to investigate working conditions in the industry, and expects American and Piedmont to “commit to a comprehensive approach to improve working conditions at all stations by investing more in their employees and supporting robust labor-management safety committees.” She also called for increased staffing ratios for ramp workers, citing inadequate staffing as an incentive for workers to “cut corners.”
According to UNITE HERE Local 23 President Marlene Patrick-Cooper airlines “decided long ago to wash their hands of any responsibility toward the men and women who work so hard to prepare and deliver meals to planes on time so that those flights can take off on time.” Her solution, which stands in contrast to the policy and regulatory fixes advanced by CWA and 32BJ, is simple: we need your support, and we need to be released from mediation so we can exercise our right to strike.
UNITE HERE’s focus on release from mediation is likely due in part to their unusual position among the three unions; they’re currently bargaining with catering contractors and have voted to strike. But their repeated mention of a constitutional right to strike captures what many would call the current surge of militancy in the labor movement. Their union—which has been a major part of the present strike wave—is putting emphasis on the ability of worker power to accomplish their political goals. It’s also a stark recognition of the reality that legislative fixes are a political long shot.
What—if any—action Congress takes remains to be seen; given impeachment proceedings and legislative gridlock, it’s unlikely that the Subcommittee’s work will rise to the top of the political agenda. Even if the full House acted on legislative policies, they would face stiff opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate. Industry lobbyists would push hard to maintain their “freedom” from Congressional oversight and action.
But Congressional hearings aren’t held lightly, and indicate that the House is serious about cracking down on exploitative working conditions in the airline industry. Hearings may increase public and political pressure on legacy airlines to hold their contractors and regional carriers to higher standards; members of Congress alluded to their expectation that management would bargain in good faith moving forward.
What happens in the airline industry—whether through worker militancy, legislative action, or both—could have a broader impact on the nature of work in America. The pro-business, anti-worker trends that workers and unions like UNITE HERE are addressing are trends felt in every corner of the economy and in every industry; complex anti-worker subcontracting arrangements are a major trend even in the public sector. The results are predictable: measurably negative impacts on worker well-being and power.
If workers are successful in fighting back against massive air carriers that are intent on maximizing profits on the backs of workers, it’ll be a “David and Goliath” moment with ramifications for working families beyond just the airline industry. Their fight has familiar overtones for many workers; Marie Jacob, a catering worker in Denver, submitted testimony asking “how is it that we work for a multibillion-dollar airline and we can’t even afford to take care of our kids’ health, much less the rising cost of housing in Denver?” Issues of healthcare affordability and poverty wages amidst soaring corporate profits are widely felt, and not just for airline workers.
For workers like Christina Hernandez, a catering worker at Dallas Fort-Worth, the stakes are also deeply personal. “My dream of retiring depends on this fight.”
C.M. Lewis is an editor of Strikewave and a union activist in Pennsylvania.