WASHINGTON — Striking workers at 10 major airports demanding higher wages Thursday also said lack of emergency preparedness training means they aren’t well-equipped to respond to security threats.
Airport workers such as baggage handlers, wheel chair assistants and service agents demanded access to airport emergency drills and training provided to police, airport security personnel and emergency responders.
Laurie Watkins, an aviation and defense safety expert at the Truman National Security Project, said there is a correlation between workers’ training in responding to attacks or other emergencies and national security.
“We need to make sure that these workers are critically trained to protect themselves, other workers and passengers,” Watkins said. “Most of the time these people are first responders in emergency situations.”
A baggage security officer at Zaventem Airport in Brussels pulled several people to safety during the recent terrorist attack there. At Los Angeles International Airport, airport service workers played a crucial role in responding to a shooting in 2013, according to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, said that worker demands for better wages also relate to security. The airport positions are often filled by subcontractors instead of the airlines themselves, resulting in higher turnover.
A less experienced workforce “puts everybody at risk,” Henry said. “It puts the passenger public at risk. It puts the workers themselves at risk.”
She spoke to SEIU members at a rally outside of Washington Reagan National Airport Thurdsay. The day-long strike, which included rallies and picketing, also took place at Sea-Tac in Seattle, O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Boston’s Logan Airport, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York, Newark airport in New Jersey, Philadelphia International airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida and, on Wednesday, at Los Angeles International Airport.
Workers at all airports were back on the job on Friday.
David Inserra, a national security policy analyst for the conservative Heritage Foundation, supported providing emergency preparedness training for all airport workers, but had doubts about the correlation between employee turnover and airport security.
“I think it’s a bit of a stretch. I can see how that argument can go but you have to jump a few steps to get there,” Inserra said. “Whether you’re moving people or baggage through security, the reality is that all of that has to go through security that is overseen” by the Transportation Security Administration.
But Henry said airports are a key component of the critical infrastructure whose protection is crucial to national security.
“Passengers just need to think about the people cleaning their cabins as part of their safety,” she said. “They need to think about the people loading the bags as part of their safety.”
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