July 24 (UPI) — Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders pledged to support airline food service workers threatening to strike for higher wages and better health insurance.
On Tuesday night at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., the leading candidates in the Democratic primary threw their support behind hundreds of union workers chanting “one job should be enough.”
“This is a fight not just for workers here,” said Warren, D-Mass., to the assembled crowd. “This is a fight for all of America. It is a fight for fair wages. It is a fight for healthcare. It is a fight for dignity.”
Last month, more than 11,000 airline catering workers voted to strike for a minimum of $15 an hour and better healthcare coverage. However, they can’t walk off their jobs until the strike is approved by the National Mediation Board following a 30-day cooling-off period.
While the rally was centered on food workers, several unions, including the Air Line Pilots Association of America, the Association of Flight Attendants and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, joined in the rally, the Washington Business Journal reported.
Sanders, I-Vt., who is an ardent supporter of unions, told the crowd that the issue is simple, especially when corporate profits are at record highs.
“We say to Sky Chefs, we say to Gate Gourmet, we say to American Airlines, pay your workers living wages and provide decent healthcare,” he said during the rally.
Warren said the fight ahead of them will be difficult, but through unions, it will be possible.
“We have an uphill battle, but if we fight side to side, brother and sister together, then we will win,” she said. “We will win for our families and the workers across the country.”
Unite Here, the union that organized the rally, announced Friday that Sanders and Warren were to attend the event with Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Rosa DeLauro and Eleanor Homes Norton, among others, stating they would attend.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is also running to be the Democrats’ presidential candidate in the 2020 election, made an appearance during the event and chided American Airlines for the wages it pays its workers while making billions in profit a year.
“I think American Airlines is doing pretty well right now, don’t you?” he asked the crowd. “Are they sharing that with the people? … Didn’t we learn in kindergarten to share with others?”
