The Northern Virginia airport worker strikes were a series of labor strikes held in 2015, 2016 and 2017 by employees of the

Huntleigh USA ICTS International N.V. is a Dutch firm that develops products and provides consulting and personnel services in the field of aviation and general security.Dolev, 2004, p. 342. It was established in 1982, by former members of the Shin Bet, Israel' ...

Corporation, the primary contractor for airport workers at

Washington Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Eastern United States, loc ...

and

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport , sometimes referred to colloquially as National Airport, Washington National, Reagan National Airport, DCA, Reagan, or simply National, is an international airport in Arlington County, Virginia, across ...

. The strikes were held over poor pay, poor working conditions, and lack of employee benefits. The strikes were held by the Huntleigh Workers Union as well as the

Service Employees International Union Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of member ...

Background

In December 2016, airport employees struck demanding $15 hour minimum wage as many tipped employees were earning as little as $6.15 per hour. In May 2017, workers at Dulles and Reagan Airports struck over pay and work conditions by Huntleigh after the

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is an independent airport authority, created with the consent of the United States Congress to oversee management, operations, and capital development of the two major airports serving the U.S ...

passed a policy to increase the minimum wage for airport workers starting with $11.55 an hour starting in January 2018, with that to increase to $12.15 in 2019 and $12.75 in 2020. Despite this, union workers were claiming to be paid only $6.50, by Huntleigh and had been suffering from

wage theft Wage theft is the failing to pay wages or provide employee benefits owed to an employee by contract or law. It can be conducted by employers in various ways, among them failing to pay overtime; violating minimum wage, minimum-wage laws; the miscl ...

. Another two day strike was held in December 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Northern Virginia airport workers' strikes Airport strike 2016 labor disputes and strikes Airport strike 2017 labor disputes and strikes Transportation labor disputes in the United States

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

December 2016 events in the United States May 2017 events in the United States December 2017 events in the United States Service Employees International Union Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority