SEIU Unites Service Workers West airport workers rally on Wednesday at San Francisco International Airport.
Dozens of cabin cleaning workers at San Francisco International Airport rallied Wednesday after being suspended for speaking out against what they said were unsanitary working conditions.
After months of contract negotiations with Unifi, an employer that provides aviation services including airplane cleaning and baggage handling, 20 airport workers with the union SEIU United Service Workers West at SFO attempted to meet with Unifi management last week.
The cabin cleaning employees outlined their concerns related to working conditions, but instead of responding, Unifi suspended 14 out of the 20 employees without pay and took away their airport badges, according to the SEIU USWW union.
“The management had suspended us for no valid reason, we were just exercising our rights to attend the union meeting,” Iditha Ico, who has worked as a cabin cleaner at SFO for 12 years, said in an interview.
Suspended workers including Ico picketed outside of Terminal 3 at SFO, chanting slogans through megaphones like “Workers unite!”
Workers said that rats, cockroaches and raccoons are infested in airport transportation vehicles. In addition to unsanitary working conditions, Unifi employees at SFO also said that Unifi owes them more than $1 million in back wages.
Unifi allegedly told the workers that the suspension was due to them being “under investigation,” according to Cam Roberts, an organizer for SEIU USWW’s airport workers in Northern California.
Unifi did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The 14 suspended workers are demanding that they be reinstated immediately, and that Unifi bargains with fairness and respect. They have also filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Unifi.
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