To: Michael Nutter, Mayor of Philadelphia
Airport Workers Deserve to Celebrate MLK Day
Please use your authority as the landlord of the Airport to grant passenger service workers at Philadelphia International Airport a paid holiday on Martin Luther King Day, January 19.
Why is this important?
My name is Nathaniel Smith. I am 22 years old and I live in West Philadelphia. I work as a baggage handler for PrimeFlight Aviation Services, a contractor for US Airways at the Philadelphia International Airport. I make $7.25 an hour with no meaningful benefits. I don’t make close to enough to provide for my family the way I’d like to. I have a 3 year-old daughter and a son on the way.
Like any parent, I want to buy my children the world but sometimes I can barely afford to get them toys or take them to lunch. I am constantly juggling bills and my phone has even been cut off. Most of the time, I make sacrifices that affect me, and not my children like working more hours or going without eating.
There are many workers at the Philadelphia International Airport who are in the same boat as I am. My coworkers and I get little or no health care. Most of us don’t get paid holidays, vacation time or sick days. Some of us even experience unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. This is no way to live. We deserve human dignity and respect.
For nearly three years we have been speaking out for better wages and conditions. Philadelphia voters have heard our cries for help and overwhelmingly supported a wage raise to $10.88. Yet eight months later, we have yet to see the raise in our paychecks. It seems that our dream is delayed.
Dr. King died supporting Memphis sanitation workers who were working under deplorable conditions and making what would be $11.41 per hour today. 46 years after Dr, King’s death, most airport passenger service workers work under deplorable conditions and earn just $8 per hour with little or no benefits. Dr. King’s dream—our dream—of good jobs and equality for all should be delayed no more.
That’s why it is more important than ever that we celebrate Dr. King’s legacy as we demand a better future for our families and for our city.
We demand and declare that MLK Day 2015 will be a paid holiday for all airport workers.
Join me and pledge to stand with PHL airport workers to make MLK Day 2015 a paid holiday.
Thank you.
Nathaniel Smith, PHL Airport Worker
Like any parent, I want to buy my children the world but sometimes I can barely afford to get them toys or take them to lunch. I am constantly juggling bills and my phone has even been cut off. Most of the time, I make sacrifices that affect me, and not my children like working more hours or going without eating.
There are many workers at the Philadelphia International Airport who are in the same boat as I am. My coworkers and I get little or no health care. Most of us don’t get paid holidays, vacation time or sick days. Some of us even experience unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. This is no way to live. We deserve human dignity and respect.
For nearly three years we have been speaking out for better wages and conditions. Philadelphia voters have heard our cries for help and overwhelmingly supported a wage raise to $10.88. Yet eight months later, we have yet to see the raise in our paychecks. It seems that our dream is delayed.
Dr. King died supporting Memphis sanitation workers who were working under deplorable conditions and making what would be $11.41 per hour today. 46 years after Dr, King’s death, most airport passenger service workers work under deplorable conditions and earn just $8 per hour with little or no benefits. Dr. King’s dream—our dream—of good jobs and equality for all should be delayed no more.
That’s why it is more important than ever that we celebrate Dr. King’s legacy as we demand a better future for our families and for our city.
We demand and declare that MLK Day 2015 will be a paid holiday for all airport workers.
Join me and pledge to stand with PHL airport workers to make MLK Day 2015 a paid holiday.
Thank you.
Nathaniel Smith, PHL Airport Worker