Alaska Airlines ramp agents and baggage handlers are rallying at 1 p.m. to urge shareholders to pay the subcontracted workers the higher wages and benefits that should have been provided to them under Prop 1, which was passed back in 2013. The workers were hired 10 years ago after Alaska Airlines suddenly and illegally fired 500 of their employees and replaced them with workers subcontracted by Scottish company, Menzies Aviation. The replacements were paid lower wages, and little, if any benefits.
“Around 2 in the morning… some guys were fueling, some guys were grabbing equipment to be fueled, some guys were working that flight. They took the first couple of guys and say hey we’re going to need your badge and there’s a Port of Seattle guy there to walk you out. They started busing those Menzies guys in — you see them coming in to try and figure everything out before the 6 o’clock starts,” Todd Fukomoto, one of the unceremoniously fired employees, said. There are also solidarity actions for the subcontracted workers taking place at airlines across the country.
