As a baggage runner and low-level security official, Maria Romero has worked for three years in the army of blue-collar functionaries who help keep the airlines operating at Los Angeles International Airport.
The 41-year-old mother of three says she earns $11.25 an hour, searching aircraft cabins and lugging passenger bags from screening checkpoints to ticket counters at the Tom Bradley International Terminal.
But Romero can't afford health insurance, and like many of the other ID checkers and aircraft cabin searchers at LAX, she says she has not been formally trained in emergency procedures or in how to recognize suspicious items and fake driver's licenses.
Romero is one of thousands of workers at LAX seeking more pay, health benefits and training from contractors who supply the airlines with janitors, security workers, baggage runners, aircraft cabin cleaners and attendants for passengers with disabilities.
The typical airline service worker makes about $10.50 an hour -- not quite $22,000 a year.
Since a daylong strike before Labor Day, negotiations have continued between the contractors and Service Employees International Union Local 1877, which represents about 2,400 airline service workers at LAX.
Union leaders acknowledge that they are taking a significant risk by pressing their demands during a severe economic downturn in the airline industry. But they are optimistic about their ability to win concessions.
So far, the union has received support from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, members of the City Council and the city's Airport Commission, which is weighing training improvements and performance standards for airport workers and contractors.
Airport officials and City Council members are concerned about the airport's poor showing in consumer satisfaction surveys. They also say that if billions of dollars are going to be spent modernizing LAX, they want a quality labor force.
"We are hopeful," said Brian Rudiger, director of the SEIU's airport division. "These workers have shown how important they are and how they are willing to take strong action."
SEIU leaders had threatened to expand the Aug. 28 walkout through the holiday weekend, but Villaraigosa brokered a cooling-off period the next day and contract talks resumed the next week.
"There has been no substantive movement yet," Rudiger said.
