Workers organized with the Service Employees International Union struck at Charlotte Douglas International Airport Monday to protest low wages. The 24-hour strike, called specifically to coincide with the holiday travel season, called for more money and more respect for the folks who keep CLT running,
Charlotte airport workers, who do everything from cleaning trash and airplanes to assisting wheelchair users according to the Associated Press, are paid as little as $12.50 per hour. In a city like Charlotte, that’s simply not a livable wage — your budget will be eaten up by things like food and rent long before you can even pay for gas to get you to work.
Saying $12.50/hour isn’t livable isn’t hyperbole. That wage comes out to about $1,713 per month after taxes at 40 hours per week, while an average studio apartment in Charlotte costs over $1,390 for just 558 square feet. It’s not New York pricing, but living on $322.30/month for food, utilities, gas, a cell phone — it’s not possible to live a decent or even healthy life.
At the high end, those workers earn $19 an hour — better, but not nearly enough. At the same 40 hours per week, that average studio apartment would still cost well over the recommended 30 percent of income rule. CLT airport workers can’t afford to live in the city where they work, and that’s untenable. They told the AP as much:
“We cannot live on the wages that we are being paid,” [facility service provider] ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said at the rally. “I can honestly say it’s hard every single day with my children, working a full-time job but having to look my kids in the eyes and sit there and say, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to have a home today.’”
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Timothy Lowe II, a Prospect wheelchair attendant, said at the rally that he has heard of co-workers having to sleep in their cars or in U-Hauls because they can’t afford rent. At the end of his shifts, Lowe said, he has to figure out where to spend the night because he doesn’t make enough for a deposit on a home.
“We just want to be able to have everything that’s a necessity paid for by the job that hired us to do a great job so they can make billions,” he said.
Hopefully, the workers’ strike gets them the living wages they deserve. A strike is a powerful tool, because it reminds the bosses who really earns the money. It is, as always, the workers.
