Charlotte airport contractors mobilize over safety concerns

PAUL WILLIAMS III | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Lashonda Barber, a contract worker at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, talks during a press conference May 22, 2025 at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center. Barber and her colleagues are lobbying Charlotte City Council to pass an ordinance that would improve workplace safety rules and provide benefits for airport workers.

Workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport are disappointed in City Council’s decision not to discuss an ordinance to improve working conditions.  

Earlier this year, workers backed by Service Employees International 32 BJ urged local and state officials to pass the Charlotte Airport Safety and Efficiency Act, or CASE, which would raise wages, require benefits, and improve working conditions for essential workers like cabin cleaners and ramp agents. Mayor Vi Lyles cast the deciding vote on June 23 after council deadlocked 5-5. Her reasoning was that the matter was “not yet ready” to go on an agenda.

She was joined by council members Dante Anderson, Ed Driggs, Edwin Peacock III, Marjorie Molina, and Malcolm Graham.

“You’re doing double the workload because you don’t got that many workers,” said Lashonda Barber, who collects and disposes of trash from international flights. She said trash bags from international flights, like 747 aircraft, can be over 100 pounds. She had to stop seeking medical treatment because she couldn’t afford the co-pay. 

Barber, who has been working at the airport for almost 20 years, and her coworkers are not employed by the airport or city; they work for ABM, a company that subcontracts with American Airlines to clean passenger cabins, search for safety threats and escort unaccompanied minors and wheelchair users through the airport. 

“Just doing a discussion about [CASE] would help in so many different ways, because we’re the ones making the airport run,” she said.

Barber says low wages lead to higher turnover, so contract workers must sometimes push two wheelchair-bound people or supervise multiple children at once. Other work conditions, including extreme weather raise concerns over safety. In the summer heat, tarmacs can reach temperatures over 100 degrees. 

“Even though they say we’re essential workers, but they don’t treat us like essential workers,” she said. 

Barber and her coworkers are paid a wage of $12.50 an hour. In addition, there’s no paid time off, so people come to work sick because they can’t afford to miss work. Barber also said a lot of her coworkers are living in their cars. 

District 3 council representative Tiawana Brown moved to add discussing the CASE ordinance to a future agenda toward the end of the June 23 business meeting. A tense discussion session ensued, and even former council member Braxton Winston directed comments from the audience. 

“We do our best, and we do more than our best most of the time,” Barber said. “But we’re still not noticed.”

Said Chris Baumann, Southern Region director for SEIU Workers United after the vote: “While Mayor Lyles may not have recognized it with her vote, we know corporations and workers can thrive and grow together in Charlotte. As Charlotte continues to flourish, our elected officials need to invest in the people who have built this city and keep it running, including airport workers. 

“The mayor and the City Council members who turned their backs on workers … should know that we are going to continue to hold them accountable until they act to make the airport safer for workers and passengers.” 

Council members that opposed adding a discussion of CASE to a future agenda shared concerns about having control of the airport rescinded from the city due to state law. 

“I am concerned about even the implication at the state legislature where they’d see us making what would be considered something that we don’t have the power to do, and we’ve seen this in the past,” Molina said. “And the state was swift in making a hard decision for us in choosing to do so.” 

The proposed budget includes a wage of $24 per hour for city employees, but companies that employ airport contract workers are private institutions and therefore exempt. 

Graham, who represents District 2,  agreed with Molina, saying the city “fought like hell” to keep control of the airport in the past. 

“Part of our responsibility as a member of this board is to do no harm,” he said. “I’m not some corporate guy. I’ve been progressive since before there was progressiveness,” adding that moving forward on CASE would be “shooting ourselves in the foot.” 

In 2013, North Carolina Republicans tried to seize control of the city-owned airport, which sparked a legal fight. Ultimately, courts decided the Federal Aviation Administration would determine control; the agency sided with Charlotte.  

Council member at large Victoria Watlington earned applause from workers and their supporters when she reminded her colleagues the discussion was not about moving forward with CASE, but to add it as an agenda item for a future meeting. 

“I don’t think that the appropriate response is to shut it down,” she said. “I don’t think our role is to say, ‘somebody said 20 years ago this bad thing happened so we’re not going to say anything.’ No. It is our job to understand what those things are so we can all move from a place of understanding.” 

City Attorney Anthony Fox informed council the problem with CASE is the presumption of the city to mandate wages and hours for entities outside its control. However, Watlington clarified there could be future discussion about “presumption” – an option that would allow the city to set workplace standards for all approved contracts. 

District 7 representative Ed Driggs, who voted to reject adding CASE to a future meeting agenda, said it “blatantly violates state law.” 

Last year, airport workers held a one-day strike during the Thanksgiving travel period to advocate for better wages and work conditions. 

“We know that the airport won’t run correctly. They might go out, but they won’t go out safely,” Barber said. “We all should work together. It got a lot of attention and [the airport] got a little worried, but it was just one day.”
In 2023, nearly 500 workers at the airport voted to unionize with SEIU32BJ. Despite being recognized as the collective bargaining organization by the National Labor Relations Board, Charlotte Douglas doesn’t recognize the union on the grounds that the company that employed the workers has had its contract terminated. 

Barber said she and her coworkers are going to knock on doors in the run-up to November’s municipal elections to support candidates that share the workers’ interests. 

“We’ll work a little harder but it’s certain [council members] we know that’s been giving us the backhand the whole time,” she said. “They just can get replaced. I believe that’s what we’re going to have to do.”

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