Frontline U.S. airport workers call for healthcare protections ahead of Thanksgiving travel boom

New York, November 19 (RHC)-- In New York City, ahead of an expected travel boom next week for Thanksgiving, airport workers rallied at LaGuardia International Airport to demand Governor Andrew Cuomo sign the Healthy Terminals Act, which would provide 25,000 frontline airport service workers with access to health insurance. The majority of the workers are Black, Brown and immigrants. 

Kyle Bragg, the president of Local 32BJ of the SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, told reporters: “It is clearly a matter of life and death for these workers.  This matter is a matter of humanity and of justice and what side we will be on and remembered for in this crisis.  Did we stand up for workers? Did we stand up for the airport workers, the essential workers who keep this place moving?  Will they have the comfort and the security of a healthcare plan?”