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Workers who handle baggage and assist passengers at airports will attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday as Democratic lawmakers seek to highlight their push for better wages and benefits.
“This is really important for every airport across the country,” said Diana Ordaz Quezada, who helps passengers in wheelchairs at Midway International Airport in Chicago. “People who clean the airports, people who do cabins, people who clean inside the planes, all of us, we need what we deserve, we’re essential workers. What would the airlines do without us?”
Ordaz Quezada will attend the address as a guest of Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also invited an airport service worker as his guest—part of a push for a bill that would restrict federal funds to airports unless workers are paid at least the prevailing local wage or $15 per hour.
Democrats make their pitch as work ramps up on a bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration. Committees in both the House and Senate are holding hearings on aviation policy this week with an eye toward the Sept. 30 deadline to reauthorize the agency.
García said Ordaz Quezada “isn’t fighting alone.” His legislation from the last Congress would get airport workers “the pay they deserve,” he said. It would also require airports...
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