Jaime Contreras, executive vice president of 32BJ SEIU, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the campaign to raise wages, win employer-paid healthcare and establish paid time off for airport workers at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).
Contreras came to the United States from El Salvador in 1988 during that country's civil war. At that time, he was an undocumented teenager, but became a citizen in 1996 and served in the U.S. Navy. He now leads one of the largest Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local Unions in the country, representing 195,000 members. At BWI, approximately 1,000 or more airline contractor workers earn $17 an hour under the Secure Maryland Wage Act, which has no further scheduled increases. Most of those employees receive no healthcare benefits and no meaningful paid time off.
On Labor Day, Gov. Wes Moore announced a $1 raise for approximately 100 MAA-contracted workers, effective Jan. 1, and committed to supporting emergency legislation in the upcoming session to extend wage increases, healthcare and paid time off to all airport-contracted workers. Contreras said New York, Boston and Philadelphia airports are already paying wages in the $20-per-hour range, with healthcare and paid time off. BWI is lagging significantly behind, he said.
Jaime Contreras came to the United States in 1988 at age 13. His family was from El Salvador, where a civil war that began in the late 1970s intensified through the decades. His parents fled to Washington, D.C. in the early 1980s and brought their children over in pairs to keep them safe. When Contreras arrived, he was undocumented because his parents had filed for political asylum, and the process was moving slowly while the war continued to escalate.
He attended middle school and high school in Washington, D.C. After graduating in 1994, he joined the U.S. Navy, where he served for three years. He had obtained his green card by then and became a U.S. citizen in 1996 while still in the military. Before enlisting, he worked as a building cleaner while also starting part-time union work. The cleaner job is where his organizing life began.
Contreras then described his path to becoming a citizen. Having come to the U.S. as a young teen, he learned English and attended American schools, so he found passing the civics test manageable. For a middle-aged immigrant working two or three jobs without those advantages, the same process is hard. They must answer 100 civics questions that most native-born Americans could not pass, and pay legal fees and application costs that have more than tripled, in some cases, he said. Now, 32BJ SEIU has a legal fund to cover most expenses for union members with green cards who are seeking citizenship. The fund pays the application fees, lawyers and fingerprinting, so members only pay $100 to access the benefit. Most workers in America, he noted, do not have a union to do that for them.
He also pushed back on the current characterization that immigrant communities are a threat. The Salvadoran community in the Washington, D.C. area alone owns more than 5,000 businesses, Contreras said. The rhetoric from the Trump administration about immigrant communities being criminals is not only wrong but the inverse of the truth. It needs to stop, he said.
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) is an economic hub. The workers who make it function — cabin cleaners, terminal cleaners, wheelchair attendants, baggage handlers — are among the lowest-paid employees at any major U.S. airport.
Most contracted workers at BWI airport currently earn $17 per hour under the Secure Maryland Wage Act, a law that 32BJ SEIU helped pass. It established a wage floor for airport workers in Maryland. The problem is that the legislation does not provide for any additional wage increases after reaching the current $17 rate.
The benefits situation compounds the wage problem, Contreras added. Most airline contract workers at BWI do not receive employer-paid healthcare. Many rely on publicly funded health programs. Those who do not qualify simply go without coverage. Also, wheelchair attendants are classified as tipped workers, but a significant share of passengers do not tip. The end result is that some workers hold two or three jobs at BWI simultaneously just to support their families. That is the labor market that the new legislation is trying to correct.
For comparison, airports in New York, Boston and Philadelphia are already paying wages in the $20 range, he added, and providing healthcare and paid time off. Those cities determined that keeping for a reliable, experienced workforce requires paying for it. High turnover at airports is also a safety concern, as workers cycling through without deep knowledge of the facility and its procedures create risks that adequate compensation and stability would reduce.
On Labor Day, Gov. Wes Moore announced that approximately 100 MAA-contracted workers at BWI will receive a $1 raise, effective Jan. 1. He also announced a study on the need for healthcare and additional wages for all airport workers and committed to supporting emergency legislation to support those changes in the upcoming Maryland legislative session.
Contreras appreciated the announcement but also acknowledged its limits. One dollar makes a difference. But approximately 1,000 or more airline-contracted workers at BWI are not covered by the MAA announcement and will see nothing without new legislation. The emergency legislation is what 32BJ SEIU is pushing for in the upcoming session. This would include amendments to the Secure Maryland Wage Act to provide additional wage increases over the next five years for both MAA and airline-contracted workers, to add employer-paid healthcare, and to approve paid time off.
Moving workers who currently use state-funded public healthcare to employer-paid coverage will save the state money, Contreras argued. The wage increases for airline-contracted workers do not cost the state any additional money because BWI is a self-funded airport. It is a win for workers and a win for the state budget simultaneously, he said. When legislators hear the savings argument, the typical response Contreras has heard is that they had not thought about it that way, which leads to the question of why this correction did not happen a long time ago.
Maryland state House leadership has committed to working on the legislation, Contreras said. The state Senate leadership has given positive signals, and meetings are scheduled in the coming weeks to discuss further, he said. The governor has committed to signing the bill if it reaches his desk.
Airlines benefiting from the current low-wage structure at BWI have opposed similar measures in the past. Contreras noted that airlines received approximately $52 billion in federal bailout money during COVID. The sky did not fall when they received that money, and it has not fallen at the airports that already pay workers around $ 20 per hour, with healthcare. It will not fall at BWI, he said.
The workforce that makes up BWI's contractor positions is, by Contreras's description, approximately half immigrant and half African American. Both communities have historically faced wage suppression and limited access to quality benefits. The intersection of those realities with low wages, no healthcare and “poverty-level pay” at a major regional airport reflects decades of policy choices that this proposed legislation is designed to begin correcting.
Contreras said that without the wage increase, workers will continue to leave for better-paying jobs elsewhere. As a whole, Maryland is losing population. Attracting and retaining qualified workers for essential airport positions requires making those positions worth having, he said. A union contract is the most reliable way to make that happen, he added.
More information on 32BJ SEIU is available at seiu32bj.org.
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