LAGUARDIA WORKERS ON STRIKE DUE TO EBOLA CONCERNS

[Omaha Steve]

Last edited Thu Oct 9, 2014, 02:21 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: 7 online

QUEENS, N.Y. -- Airplane cabin cleaners have set up pickets outside a LaGuardia Airport terminal over health and safety issues.

About 200 Air Serv workers who support domestic flights at Terminal D began a 24-hour strike on Wednesday night.

They say their concerns include possible exposure to Ebola.

The workers, who are seeking to unionize, say they're sometimes exposed to blood, feces, vomit and even chemicals while on the job, but are not equipped with appropriate protective gear.

FULL story AND video at link.



Read more: http://7online.com/travel/ebola-concerns-lead-laguardia-workers-to-strike/342991/

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Support LGA Airport Cabin Cleaners on strike to protest health & safety violations by contractor Air Serv!

Some 200 cabin cleaners employed by subcontractor Air Serv have gone on strike at LaGuardia Terminal D to protest hazardous conditions that are putting their health and lives at risk as well as unfair labor practices by their employer. The strikers are employed by Air Serv to clean Delta's planes at LaGuardia. Support the striking workers today by tweeting, posting on Facebook and sharing the attached image on Instagram.


Sample tweets (post with attached image where space)

I stand w #LaGuardia Air Serv workers striking over hazardous conditions. No workers should have to risk health/safety to make a living.


We stand with Air Serv workers who face health/safety risks while making sure #LaGuardia flights leave on time.


#LGA contractor Air Serv isn’t meeting #OSHA regulations! Air Serv must do the right thing and ensure worker health & safety.


Hey #TTOT, #airport workers are striking today over health/safety risks by #LGA contractor AirServ. Stand with them.


#TTOT would you take a seat w/ no seatbelts? Employees of #LGA contactor Air Serv do it regularly. They’ve had enough & are striking.


#TTOT you wouldn’t take a ride next to a leaking bag of trash, but #LGA Air Serv airport workers have had to. Support their strike!


#Airport workers make air #travel possible. I support striking #LGA workers employed by Air Serv, fed up with #health & #safety hazards.


#Aviation update: #LGA workers on strike, protesting health/safety hazards, unfair labor practices under #airport contractor Air Serv


#LGA airport workers ensuring good #paxex are having horrible experience themselves: health/safety hazards. I support their strike.


#Nowarriving: A strike at #LGA over hazardous conditions, unfair labor practices. Support striking Air Serv workers. #Solidarity


#avgeek You don’t travel w/o right gear, why should workers work w/o theirs? #LGA workers w/o proper gloves, masks, supplies are on strike.


#TNI #TravelTip #LGA workers who clean planes in/out of Terminal D on strike protesting H&S hazards, unfair labor practices


Pricked by needles, sprayed by feces. #LGA #airport workers have had enough & are on strike. Stand w/ them in the fight for justice! #1u


Sample FB Post

Yesterday evening airport workers employed by contractor Air Serv walked off their jobs and today are on the picket lines to protest hazardous conditions and unfair labor practices at LaGuardia Airport. Today I/We [choose one] stand with airport workers in their fight for justice. Support them by sharing this image on your Facebook wall. [Post with attached share image]

[Dopers_Greed]

1. Sounds like this strike is about a lot more than just Ebola

Now, the RW media is going to have to report that their Ebola fears are unwarranted, in order to delegitimize the workers' complaints.

I can already see Faux walking a tightrope between making people very afraid, and attacking this labor movement.

[unblock]

2. la guardia but not jfk or newark? i thought lga was only domestic + canada?

if their concern is really ebola, i think they're premature at best.

if their concern is all the other health risks from coming into contact with bodily fluids, perhaps they should have gone on strike long ago.


maybe they're just seizing the moment. people might sympathize with them based on the overhyped ebola threat to americans, whereas they might not sympathize with them based on the far more real, but ordinary, risks.

in any event, i support unions and worker safety, so i'm inclined to be supportive and assume that citing ebola is merely a (cynical) effort to garner support.

[Raine1967]

5. I think the airport has flights from other airports that are international.

I think Air CAnada flies into La Guardia. I agree with you, I support the unions and if this is what it takes to get a damn plance clean, I approve.

[Marthe48]

3. I support their strike

I hear that Ebola isn't easy to catch, but there are thousands of victims, and a high mortality rate:

http://healthmap.org/ebola/#timeline

I look at this site every week, to keep the victims in mind.

[Hortensis]

9. Me too. Does ANYONE believe the contractor has cut into its profits

to provide adequate training and equipment for the very low-pay workers who clean the airplane toilets?

[branford]

4. I think that the workers may be trying to capitalize on Ebola fears.

I think it is a poor strategy. There is no evidence they are in any danger, it may create unwarranted fear at the airport and beyond, will certainly and unnecessarily anger management well beyond their unionization attempts, and even puts the federal government, who would normally support the union efforts, on the defensive because their first priority is to calm fears about the disease.

[brentspeak]

6. "the federal government, who would normally support the union efforts..."

Sarcasm, right?

[branford]

7. You don't believe that the current NLRB, Obama administration and Gov. Cuomo are pro-union?

I am most definitely not being sarcastic. I assume that you believe that the current Democratic federal and NYS administrations are not sufficiently pro-union for your tastes? If such thoughts begin to overcome you, just think about labor under Reagan and Bush, or if Romney was the US President . . .

And do you really want any government agency to have to choose between a small group of airport workers who are probably quite safe and the entire country's fears of a virulent contagion, no less a month before elections where our party is not favored?

[jeff47]

8. Yay. This strike will be cited for years to show that ebola will kill us all. (nt)

[Rhinodawg]

10. I was there today and saw the protest.

No way 200 people...50 or 60 tops.

Actually almost as many police just leaning against patrol cars.

[Omaha Steve]

13. Divide 200 by 3, 8 hour shifts

They picket around the clock. That matches up with the 50-60 you saw.

[YOHABLO]

11. If they are at risk, what is the solution? Cleaning airplanes in hazmat suits won't be comfortable.

[freshwest]

12. Ebola or no ebola, they should have provided them protective gear all along. A lot of people travel

every day, and not all of them are able or willing to be follow the rules of hygiene all the time. And they need a union to protect their health and their livelihoods. I thought most aviation jobs were still unionized, but I was wrong. Thanks for posting.

[quadrature]

14. I have friends in cabin circus

they all say the same thing.

If you yourself on the inside
of an airplane, wear a mask.
Don't touch anything