Airport Service Workers Advocate for Good Jobs for Good Airports

As the busy summer travel season continues, airport service workers, including CWA members, joined Senator Edward Markey (D-MA), Representative Jesús "Chuy" García (IL-4), and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1) this week to introduce the Good Jobs for Good Airports Act (GJGA). The GJGA is a bipartisan bill that seeks to address the lack of wage and benefit standards for airport service workers, including the approximately 20,000 passenger service agents represented by CWA at American Airlines and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Envoy Air and Piedmont Airlines.

“The protections under the bill are long overdue,” said Joshua Taborn (pictured above), a Piedmont Airlines gate agent in Washington, D.C., and mobilizer for CWA Local 2252. “Agents at American Airlines subsidiaries Envoy and Piedmont are working without any real protections. Many of our colleagues have to work part-time jobs to make ends meet. It is a shame that our wages are not enough.”

While some airline CEOs have doubled and even tripled their own pay since 2022, service worker pay has stagnated. Through higher wages and benefits, the GJGA will help reduce turnover among airport service workers and build an experienced, well-trained workforce that can maintain safe and efficient operations within our airports. It’s a win-win for workers, travelers, and communities across the U.S.