Norton to Call Out Eulen America and Other Contract Employers at DCA During 24-Hour Strike

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will read from her letter to Eulen America today at 12:30 p.m. at a rally at Gravelly Point Park, north of the Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) along the Potomac River, in support of airline contract workers seeking collective bargaining under SEIU 32BJ as part of a nationwide 24-hour strike to go from 9:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, 2016 to 9:00 p.m. Thursday, March 31, 2016. Contract wheelchair attendants, skycaps, baggage handlers, checkpoint agents and cabin cleaners will also be speaking at today’s rally. Norton will call out the largest contractor, Eulen America, and read from her letter to the contractor who has been cited for unfair labor practices against workers exercising their right to bargain and has been unwilling to pay a living wage and benefits or even to meet with its workers. The airline contract workers called off a similar work stoppage planned for March 22, 2016 after the Brussels terrorist attack, an indication, Norton said, of not only the solidarity of American airport workers with those in Brussels, but also of the risks airport workers take daily.

“Today’s 24-hour nationwide work stoppage shows the unity of airport workers who refuse to go silent while enduring wages at DCA that have been driven down by Eulen America and other contract employers, almost no benefits, wage theft, and interference with their lawful right to organize,” said Norton. “Poverty wages and abusive treatment by Eulen America and other employers in the National Capital Region, with its high cost of living, will not be tolerated by elected officials and the people they represent. These contract workers and SEIU 32BJ are not about to give up and they have the citizens of this region behind them.”