“The new contract immediately turned the Fuelers represented by the TWU from the lowest-paid Fuelers on property to the highest-paid, and provides workers with both sick time and vacation instead of a management-controlled PTO system,” said TWU international president John Samuelsen in a press release.
The TWU, representing roughly 155,000 workers across the country — including onboard attendants for the Brightline rail service — describes itself as the largest union on the property of the Orlando airport, representing flight attendants and maintenance workers for several airlines. According to the TWU, the new union contract with PrimeFlight will cover 72 fuelers who work at MCO, servicing flights for airlines such as Southwest, United, American and Spirit, among others.
Fuelers at MCO first reached out to the union with the aim of addressing low pay and high job turnover, according to the TWU, as well as other working conditions, such as a lack of nearby access to drinking water and protection against inclement weather while working outdoors.
PrimeFlight Aviation has faced numerous allegations of wage, health and safety violations, paying out tens of thousands of dollars to address complaints later substantiated by federal labor agencies. In 2016, for instance, the company was issued a $37,413 fine (later reduced) by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The citation was for exposing cabin cleaners at Newark International Airport to unsanitary working conditions (cleaning up blood and other potentially infectious materials) without proper protective equipment.
Now, under the workers’ new three-year contract at MCO, one of the nation’s busiest air hubs, starting pay for the PrimeFlight fuelers will immediately rise from $15 an hour to $17.50, according to the union, and increase about $1 each year after for the duration of the agreement. The agreement also provides just cause protections for workers — meaning they’re no longer at will employees who can be fired for no reason — and also includes access to guaranteed sick days and paid time off for the first time.
According to the TWU’s news release, the workers were previously granted a week of PTO “subject to management’s discretion” and no paid sick days. A union spokesperson explained over email this means that PTO requests were previously applied to vacation or sick time, and could be rejected by management at their discretion.
Now, first-year workers have a full week of guaranteed paid time off, workers with at least three years of service are guaranteed two weeks, workers with five years of service get three weeks, and workers with 15 or more years of service have four weeks’ PTO.
All workers under the contract now also have access to six days of paid sick leave (separate from paid vacation), eight paid holidays, and guaranteed overtime pay for any hours worked above 40 hours in a work week.
“This new contract provides major improvements to pay and working conditions and provides significant union protections,” said TWU Local 504 president Robert Payne in a statement. “We were proud to fight for PrimeFlight Fuelers at the bargaining table and we will continue to work on delivering contracts that improve the livelihoods of hardworking TWU members in Central Florida.”
Related
Aircraft fuelers at Orlando International Airport unanimously vote to unionize
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This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2025.
