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Dalines Cortes cleans 20 to 25 airplane cabins in Orlando a day, with a team of seven or eight other cabin cleaners — sometimes less, if they’re short-staffed. She works for Delta Airlines at Orlando International Airport, one of the busiest air hubs in the nation, as an entry point to the so-called “Happiest Place on Earth.”
Cortes, a 46-year-old immigrant from Puerto Rico, earns $15 an hour cleaning for Delta, which has larger cabins on its planes than some other airlines, she says. Her current wage is up from $13 when she first began working at the airport part-time a year and a half ago. At that time, she juggled several part-time gigs: working for the airport, a Dollar Tree and a gym — the latter two both paid less, but it helped pay the bills.
Today, she lives in a mobile home with her son, who works to help cover the skyrocketing cost of living in the Orlando area as he attends school. Although they own the mobile home where they currently reside, they still have to pay rent for the plot of land it’s situated upon in the mobile home park — and that rent has increased in recent years from $540 to $740, a 37 percent increase. The cost of electricity, car insurance, groceries and gas has also gone up.
A $15 wage, working full-time...
We're hearing from people who say they're still owed thousands of dollars from CJF America. And for the first time in months, WRAL talked with the founder, Courtney Jordan, directly.