Dec. 21—The International Association of Machinists union has agreed to a two-year tentative contract extension with McGee Air Services, the Alaska Airlines subsidiary that provides baggage handling and airplane cleaning services to its fleet.
The contract will cover 2,300 workers at eight airports around the country, with 788 of those Washington state.
The base wage scale covering workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport barely tops the 2023 $19-an-hour minimum wage there and is likely to fall below it by 2024.
Counterintuitively, McGee can legally pay less than the minimum wage because its workforce is unionized. The exemption in the minimum wage law that allows this anomaly explains why Alaska chose to unionize this group of workers after its history of busting the same union.
Alaska Air spokesperson Bobbie Egan said employees who show up for their assigned schedule can earn up to an additional $4 per hour for "reliability," which hikes the hourly rate well above the minimum wage.
And John Coveny, who as the IAM's directing general chair of Local 142 led the contract negotiations, defended the overall agreement by citing the added benefits in the package.
"The value of the contract itself far exceeds the dollar amount that they put in their pocket," Coveny said. "You get your vacation, your holidays, your sick time, your 401(k), your medical and all the other benefits that come along with it."
The new contract requires McGee to set up a 401(k) retirement plan for...
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