November 23, 2016 The Skanner Page 9
News
O’Hare Workers to Strike on Nationwide ‘Day of Disruption’
Along with O’Hare workers, thousands of fast-food workers plan to walk off their jobs Nov. 29
CHICAGO — A strike
by hourly workers at
O’Hare
International
Airport in Chicago will
add another dimension
to a nationwide day of
protests by fast-food em-
ployees who have been
pushing for a $15 hourly
wage and union rights,
“
were jobs you could live
off of. Now airport jobs
are just like fast-food
jobs. We’re all standing
together.”
The Service Employ-
ees International Union
announced Monday that
hundreds of workers will
strike that day at O’Hare,
one of the nation’s busi-
est airports. The union
has helped fund and staff
whether the strike will
last longer than one day.
The Chicago Depart-
ment of Aviation said it
doesn’t anticipate any
disruption in service.
Some holiday travel-
ers are nervous, how-
ever. Kim Maguire, 40,
of Crystal Lake, was at
O’Hare on Monday with
her 3-year-old daugh-
ter and husband as they
Four decades ago, airport jobs were jobs you
could live off of. Now airport jobs are just like
fast-food jobs. We’re all standing together
organizers said Monday.
Thousands of workers
plan to walk off the job at
McDonald’s restaurants
and other fast-food spots
in more than 340 cities
on Nov. 29, organizers
said in a news release.
The planned “Day of Dis-
ruption” will mark the
fourth anniversary of
the first protests at Mc-
Donald’s restaurants in
New York.
The attention-grabbing
airport strike is “going to
cause complete disrup-
tion in travel plans for
the day and maybe days
to come,” said Kendall
Fells, national organiz-
ing director of the Fight
for $15 campaign. “Four
decades ago, airport jobs
the Fight for $15 cam-
paign.
O’Hare is the only air-
port where workers plan
to strike, though organiz-
ers are planning protests
at airports in 18 other
cities, including Boston,
Washington, D.C., Den-
ver, Atlanta, Seattle and
Los Angeles.
About 500 O’Hare
workers committed to
a strike after a vote last
week. They are trying to
organize with SEIU Local
1’s help. They work for
private contractors at
the airport and include
baggage handlers, cabin
cleaners, janitors and
wheelchair attendants.
Organizers said it will be
up to workers to decide
headed out for a holiday
trip to see relatives in Se-
attle, with a return flight
scheduled on the strike
date.
“I don’t want it to im-
pact our travel plans,”
Maguire said. “Espe-
cially traveling with a
3-year-old, delays would
be difficult.”
Maguire said she sup-
ports the workers and
is grateful to those who
clean planes, especially
reaching into seat-back
pockets. “I wouldn’t
want to reach my hand in
there,” she said.
Julio Godoy, 54, an
O’Hare airplane cab-
in cleaner who makes
$10.50 an hour, said he
plans to take part in the
AP PHOTO/NAM Y. HUH, FILE
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
Associated Press
In this Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015, file photo, travelers line up at a security checkpoint area in Terminal 3
at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. Hundreds of O’Hare International Airport workers that are
trying to unionize have voted to go on strike ahead of the 2016 Thanksgiving holiday. Officials with the
Service Employees International Union Local 1 said Thursday Nov. 17, 2016, that about 500 workers have
committed to strike.
strike. He said he knows
co-workers who have
been stuck by the nee-
dles of syringes left in
seat-back pockets and
who then needed to be
tested for HIV and hep-
atitis. He said he’s also
concerned about being
asked to check planes for
weapons and explosives
without training.
There had been con-
cern that the strike
would fall during the
busiest travel days. In
announcing the Nov. 29
strike, the union and
workers on Monday por-
trayed the date as a con-
cession to families.
“O’Hare airport work-
ers often can’t afford a
proper
Thanksgiving
dinner and know what
it’s like to miss Thanks-
giving with our fami-
lies,” said baggage han-
dler Raquel Brito, who
announced the strike
date. “However we re-
spect families traveling
to be together and that
is why we’re holding off
our strike until after the
Thanksgiving holiday.”
Information is powerful.
Retirement cont’d from pg 8
why access to 401(k) and
other retirement plans is
so important.
Most
lower-income
households will save
when they have access
to a retirement plan.
“
Research at Boston Col-
lege.
“For an upper-middle
class person, not being
able to maintain their
standard of living means
fewer trips,” says Alicia
meantime, many work-
ers are simply working
longer.
David Tucker is 74 and
still waking at 1:15 each
morning to get to his job
as a skycap at Reagan Na-
The power is
in your hands.
‘I have to work and pray and hope my health
continues to remain good so that I can contin-
ue to work. I still have a mortgage and all the
insurance that goes along with that, and I have
to pay payroll for my employees, which is re-
ally important to me. I can honestly say I’m
frightened about the future’
The problem is that most
don’t get the opportunity.
Eighty
percent
of
high-income
working
households have access
to a 401(k) or similar de-
fined-contribution plan,
according to the U.S. Gov-
ernment Accountability
Office. For low-income
working households, it’s
just 35 percent.
The low retirement bal-
ances mean the majority
of households — 52 per-
cent — are at risk of hav-
ing to cut their spending
by more than 10 percent
after entering retire-
ment, according to the
Center for Retirement
Munnell, the center’s
director. “But for low-
er-income people, it can
really mean depriving
themselves.”
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
To help close the gap,
states are trying their
own measures. Califor-
nia recently passed a
law requiring employers
to automatically enroll
their workers in a state-
run program and deduct
money from each pay-
check.
Experts prefer a broad-
er fix from the federal
government but call the
state programs an en-
couraging step. In the
tional Airport outside
Washington, D.C.
He says he may con-
sider retiring next year
or cutting down to a few
days per week. And what
would he look forward to
in retirement?
“I would like to feel
what it’s like to wake up
and not go to work,” he
says. “For a while, that’s
all I would like to do. I
wouldn’t worry about
anything else.”
AP Data Journalist An-
geliki Kastanis and AP
Business Writers Joseph
Pisani and Sarah Skid-
more Sell contributed to
this report.
NEWS
www.TheSkanner.com
TheSkannerNews
@TheSkannerNews