Newark Airport Workers Resume Health Care Fight Amid COVID Crisis

NEWARK, NJ — The fight for better health care on the job continues at Newark Airport in 2021.

More than 100 subcontracted airport workers with labor union 32BJ SEIU held a virtual rally on Monday, urging the New Jersey Legislature to pass the Healthy Terminals Act (S989/A2487), a bill that would provide a health care benefit supplement to nearly 4,000 “essential workers in crisis.”

The bill would provide subcontracted workers at Newark Liberty International Airport with a $4.54/hour benefit supplement for health care. According to the union, many employees claim that they struggle to afford coverage due to “sky-high costs,” but can’t qualify for Medicaid or Affordable Care Act subsidies because their incomes are too high.

The union estimated that the total cost to airlines would account for 0.13 percent of the industry’s recent $65 billion federal pandemic bailout.

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“Health care is a gamble for us,” said Stephney McLeish, who has worked at the airport for six years.

“Without a consistent option, we’re stuck,” McLeish said. “Getting bounced around with different plans – or no plan at all – is not a solution.”

It’s a cause that the workers and union pushed hard for last year. But although a similar bill was passed in New York state – boosting workers at John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports – the Healthy Terminals Act never passed muster in New Jersey.

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But workers at Newark Airport and the union, which includes 13,000 members in the Garden State, aren’t giving up the battle.

Every year, 32BJ airport workers hold marches in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to carry on his legacy for racial and economic justice. Essential workers held the rally over Zoom this year due to coronavirus concerns, choosing to highlight the current version of the bill for this year’s action.

“On MLK Day last year, I rallied for the Healthy Terminals Act too, and I’m back again asking for the same thing – but now the stakes are higher,” said Andre Cooper, a cabin cleaner at Newark Airport.

“I’ve cleaned airplanes from all over the world during this pandemic and I do it without health insurance,” Cooper urged. “I need this bill passed now.”

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“Airport workers have been on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic for almost a year,” 32BJ SEIU President Kyle Bragg said. “While these workers keep our airport running, most have no affordable health care.”

“The crippling costs of health care must not undo the hard-fought progress these workers have made to raise their wages,” Brown added, referencing a landmark minimum wage decision that will raise the salaries of workers at Newark, JFK and LaGuardia airports to $19 per hour by 2023.

“These airport workers, mostly Black and Brown, are answering Dr. King’s call for justice,” Bragg said.

• See related article: Airport Workers Win 'Highest Min. Wage In US' After Long Battle
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The primary sponsor of the bill, Senator Loretta Weinberg, joined workers at Monday’s virtual rally alongside Assembly sponsor Annette Quijano, Senator Joe Cryan, Senator Vin Gopal, Assemblywoman Valerie Vainierie-Huttle, Assemblyman Daniel Benson, Assemblywoman Carol Murphy, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson and Assemblyman Gary Schaer.

“The New York Legislature acted in the interest of essential airport workers, the airlines and travelers,” Weinberg said. “New Jersey needs to get this done. The bill costs the airlines so little that there is no excuse to hold it up any longer.”

• See related article: NJ Black Caucus Says Healthy Terminals Act Would Boost Newark Airport

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