Almost 100 Swissport cargo employees on the Denver Worldwide Airport are on strike Monday, protesting unsafe work situations they are saying the corporate has been ignoring for greater than a yr.
The strike that started final night time is about to final by means of the day Monday, with a rally of the hanging employees beginning exterior DIA’s Essential Terminal at 10:30 a.m.
“It’s a giant ask to get individuals to danger their job on this manner, despite the fact that it’s legally protected,” stated Andrew Guttman, who works as a cargo agent for Swissport. Individuals are nervous about it. Doing greater than someday would’ve been quite a bit to chew off.”
Cargo employees might be joined by different airport employees, group members and elected officers supporting their combat for safer working situations, in line with a Monday information launch from the Service Staff Worldwide Union.
Whereas the cargo employees usually are not a part of the union, they reached out to it for assist after their Swissport strike discover gained 80 to 90 employees’ signatures.
Swissport handles airfreight and airport floor providers at DIA, and the strike solely ought to have an effect on Amazon packages coming out and in of the airport, not business flights, Guttman stated.
In keeping with Swissport’s website, the corporate has offered airport floor providers and managed an air cargo warehouse at DIA since 2006.
The DIA media relations staff confirmed airport operations are anticipated to stay regular in the course of the strike in an emailed assertion to the Denver Submit on Monday.
“We wish administration to take our considerations severely, so hopefully this can be a option to get that to occur,” Guttman stated. “If it’s not, we’ll maintain working to get them to concentrate. We wish to set up this as a result of it issues to us.”
Guttman stated the strike is an escalation of petitions that administration hasn’t responded to — the primary being circulated a yr in the past in December 2022 and the newest being filed in August.
The petitions referred to as out defective and damaged gear, harmful working temperatures at services, heaters not functioning throughout winter climate, and insufficient security coaching.
“We’re making an attempt to get their consideration, and we knew we needed to go greater ultimately,” Guttman stated. “After the second petition was circulated in August, we gave them a deadline of the next month to reply. When that didn’t occur, we had by no means stopped speaking to one another and this strike simply felt like the subsequent pure factor.”
Earlier this yr, Swissport employees at DIA alleged a warehouse hearth broke out after a loading truck struck a ground heating machine that was uncovered with none protections in place, in line with SEIU’s Monday launch.
“I’ve simply seen too a lot of my coworkers get damage and be put in harmful conditions at work over the previous yr,” Guttman stated. “We’ve delivered petitions, filed a number of OSHA complaints, and Swissport has refused to handle the true security considerations which might be placing our lives in danger on the job.”
Denver employees aren’t alone in these points.
Final December, Swissport employees on the Chicago O’Hare airport additionally went on strike to name out unfair labor practices. In June, Swissport employees at Boston Logan International Airport, Dulles International Airport, and LaGuardia followed.
Swissport didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
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