Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Fort Lauderdale airport concession workers rally on Labor Day for raises, free health care

By Jesse Scheckner on September 3, 2024

With a potential strike looming, hundreds of concession workers rallied on Labor Day at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), demanding pay increases and health benefits.

The workers are members of UNITE HERE Local 355, a Miami Gardens-based union that represents roughly 1,000 FLL workers.

Approximately half were part of a national agreement the union's parent organization struck with Buffalo-based hospitality company Delaware North, which operates many restaurants at the Broward County hub.

That agreement expired July 31. On Aug. 22, a majority of Delaware North workers at FLL voted to strike if one is called by UNITE HERE's worker negotiating committee. The workers want free health insurance and "significant wage increases so they don't have to choose between paying the rent and putting food on the table," a UNITE HERE Local 355 press note said.

"My husband and I are ready to start our family, but it's hard to go anywhere," Rhiana Ford, a bartender for Delaware North at FLL, said in a statement.

"The cost of living in Fort Lauderdale is so high. Some of these houses that are so small still run for half a million dollars just because of the location."

According to UNITE HERE, 50% of respondents to a survey the union conducted among Delaware North's unionized food service workers said they were unable to afford rent, mortgage or other housing costs.

UNITE HERE Local 355 concession workers rally at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for increased pay and health benefits more than a month after their collective bargaining agreement with concessionaire Delaware North expired. Image via UNITE HERE Local 355/Facebook.

Fort Lauderdale is the fourth-most expensive area in Florida for renters, according to a state analysis by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which found that a two-bedroom rental household must earn a combined hourly wage of $40.42 — $6,467 a month — to comfortably live in the city.

That rate rose $658 a month (10%) between 2019 and 2023, a UNITE HERE analysis of fair market rent data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition found.

And according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Living Wage Calculator, the living wage for two full-time working adults with two children in the Greater Miami area is $26.52 per hour.

"While Delaware North's revenues have now surpassed pre-pandemic levels with reported revenues of $3.9 billion in 2022, their workers have not shared in that recovery and continue to struggle with everyday living expenses," UNITE HERE Local 355 President Rose Denis said in a statement.

Florida Politics contacted Delaware North spokespeople Glen White and Charles Roberts Tuesday but did not immediately hear back from them. This report will be updated upon receipt of a response.

The rally Sunday took place as some 10,000 UNITE HERE hotel workers participated in strikes around the country.

At FLL, a UNITE HERE agreement with Atlanta-headquartered concessionaire Paradies Lagardère has also expired. Another one the union has with Maryland-based HMS Host is set to lapse Oct. 31.

UNITE HERE Local 355 represents about 7,000 hotel, airport, restaurant, stadium and casino workers across South Florida.

Sunday also marked the 17th day of striking for an estimated 1,400 AT&T service technicians in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties represented by Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 3104, whose contract with the telecom company expired Aug. 3. The workers, who are part of a roughly 10,000-worker strike statewide, are protesting allegedly unfair labor practices by AT&T.

*CWA Local 3104 workers notched their 17th straight day of striking against their telecom employer, AT&T, with which the union's contract expired a month ago. Image via CWA Local 3104/Facebook.*

AT&T said in an Aug. 30 statement that CWA's claims "have no basis in fact" and that the company continues to "negotiate in good faith." The company said it has brought in a mediator "because we have always been ready to make progress, contrary to false accusations."

CWA Local 3104 President Mike Devane told Local 10 that the AT&T representative sent to negotiate with the group "cannot make decisions" and has engaged in "surface bargaining, which is basically just going through the motions — nothing serious — and they don't make decisions at the table."

The strikes come at a time of increasing difficulty for unions in Florida following legislation by Republican Sen. Blaise Ingoglia and Republican Rep. Dean Black that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last year.

The measures, panned by Democratic lawmakers and opposed by a handful of their GOP colleagues, prohibit public employers from deducting union dues from employee paychecks, limit how unions can recruit and retain members, and set a membership threshold for automatic certification renewal.

Among other things, the relatively new law requires 60% of workers for a given public employer to be members of a union for that union to remain certified without having to reapply for certification. The law also mandates additional reporting from unions. First responder unions, 911 operators and mass transit workers are exempt from the new requirements.