Newark, NJ– Elected Officials, clergy members, and hundreds of New Jersey airport workers and community supporters will participate in a mass action on Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday to urge the Port Authority, airlines and contractors to take immediate action to improve working conditions and wages at the airports because in the words of Dr. King: “It is a crime for people who live in this rich nation to receive starvation wages.”
Newark Airport is seeing record numbers of passengers while airlines like United are reaping record-breaking profits. Contracted passenger service workers, meanwhile, are underpaid and underappreciated, living paycheck to paycheck while working for multi-million dollar airline companies. Airport workers demanding that the PANYNJ, airlines and subcontractors deliver on the wage increases promised last year. Workers are asking: since they have fallen behind on their own Sept 30th deadline of enhanced wages and benefits what will stop them from missing the February 1st increases and ensuring MLK be a paid vacation day?
On January 15th we are standing together because Justice Delayed is Justice Denied.
WHO:
Elected officials: Congressman: Albio Sires; Senator Raymond Lesniak; New Jersey Assemblywomen: Annette Quijano, and Grace Spencer; Mayor of Newark Ras Baraka; Deputy Mayor Rahman Muhammad, Council President Mildred Crump; Council members: Eddie Osborne, Rolando Bobadilla, and Christopher James; Mayor of Roselle Jamal Holley and Councilwoman Patricia Perkins-Auguste
Clergy Members: Pastor Robert Jackson, Israel Memorial AME Church; Pastor Moacir Weinrich, St. Stephans, Pastor Malachia Brantley, Shiloh Baptist Church; Pastor Patrick Council, St. Johns Baptist Church; Pastor Janyce Jackson, LITC Church; Reverend Louise Rountree, Good Neighbor Baptist Church; Minister Ronald Tuff, First Bethel Baptist Church; Pastor Shawn Wallace, People’s Missionary Baptist Church; Pastor John Gamble, Smyrna Baptist Church; and Pastor Perry Simmons, Abyssinian Baptist Church
Community Leaders: Cynthia Mellon of the Ironbound Community Corporation; Rick Foard of the War Against Poverty Coalition; Margaret Stevens, Director of the Urban Issues Institute at Essex County College. Representatives from: People’s Organization for Progress, New Jersey Environmental Coalition and NAACP
Hundreds of Airport workers and community supporters
WHAT:
Airports workers engage in civil disobedience demanding respect, living wages and benefits including MLK Day as a paid holiday
WHERE:
- Assembling at Weequahic Park (Frelinghuysen Ave. &Haynes Ave in Newark) for short program in the park.
- March starts at approximately 10:30AM towards Haynes Bridge
WHEN:
THIS Thursday January 15th at 10 AM program in Weequahic Park.
With 145,000 members in 11 states–including nearly 10,000 in New Jersey–32BJ SEIU is the largest property services union in the country.
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