Food Service Workers At PHL Stage May Day Protest
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Food service workers at Philadelphia International Airport staged a May Day rally this morning, demanding that they be paid the city minimum.
About 50 workers who move and package airline meals rallied at Philadelphia International Airport to bring attention to what they say are substandard wages at airport caterer LSG SkyChefs.
They chanted, "We are human," and wore signs with that slogan in ten different languages.
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SkyChefs worker Avery Austin said he was making $7.90 an hour instead of the city's $12.10 minimum for new vendor contracts.
"You think that we're not worth getting $12 like everybody else in this building? We do just as much work as the people in here. Because without us, these planes are not taking off."
Unite Here Local 274 president Rosslyn Wuchinich says most airport employers have signed on to the new minimum wage.
"There are companies that are outliers that are continuing to pay people very very little. And that's why those signs say, "I am human."
SkyChefs has not responded to our request for comment.
City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, at the rally, said he planned to hold Council hearings into whether airport businesses were following the law.