Newark Airport Workers Expected To Get Higher Minimum Wage
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) - The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is moving ahead with plans to raise minimum pay for workers at all its facilities, its executive director said at Wednesday's monthly board meeting.
In January, Port Authority executive director Pat Foye wrote to four airlines demanding their contractors give raises to workers at JFK and LaGuardia and phase in a minimum wage of $10.10.
Newark Airport Workers Expected To Get Higher Minimum Wage
Workers at Newark Liberty currently make the state minimum wage, $8.25 an hour.
"Why these hard working employees are left out of the directive," Assemblyman Gordon Johnson said. "Airport employees work hard everyday to make sure that passengers and cargo move smoothly."
On Wednesday, a committee on operations unanimously voted to continue reviewing what it will take to raise wage minimums for employees of contractors and vendors at the Port Authority's other facilities.
The Port Authority operates JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty Airports in the metro region as well as New York's Stewart Airport and Teterboro and Atlantic City airports in New Jersey. It also runs bridges and tunnels, the Port Authority bus terminal and PATH rail service, as well as the Ports of New York and New Jersey. The first workers to be affected would be airport workers, and of the four airlines Foye approached, Delta and American have already agreed to the request.
Foye, deputy executive director Deb Gramiccioni and the Port Authority law department will "make sure the requests are implemented and are legal and enforceable and appropriate,'' Foye said. "It's important to emphasize this will apply to all of our airports in both states, and then to each Port Authority facility other than aviation.''
Foye said he'd propose the recommendation at next month's Port Authority board meeting.
Dozens of airport workers attended Wednesday's board meeting in support of the proposal, and unrolled a petition they said was signed by more than 1,500 workers at the region's three major airports.
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