Aircraft fuelers employed by airline contractor Menzies Aviation at Orlando International Airport have unionized with the Transport Workers Union Local 504, in a bid to secure higher pay and better job benefits.
The workers’ union drive follows an organization effort by another group of fuelers they work alongside at the airport, employed by airline contractor PrimeFlight, who similarly unionized with the TWU and approved their first union contract last year.
“A year ago, we organized PrimeFlight Fuelers in Orlando and swiftly negotiated that extremely important first contract that locked in a 15 percent pay raise, vacation pay and guaranteed sick time,” said TWU international president John Samuelsen in a statement. “We now look forward to doing the same with Menzies.”
The TWU represents more than 160,000 airline, transit and rail workers nationwide, including flight attendants for JetBlue and Southwest Airlines, Brightline attendants in Central Florida, and public transit workers in Lakeland and Miami-Dade County.
Reaping the benefits
According to the union, Menzies Aviation decided to voluntarily recognize the union of its aircraft fuelers at Orlando International Airport after nearly all of the workers signed cards in support of unionization.
Under the federal National Labor Relations Act, workers in the private sector can form a union either by petitioning the National Labor Relations Board for a union election, or by getting voluntary recognition of their union from their employer. Doing so requires gathering signed union authorization cards from more than 50 percent of the workers who would be represented by the union.
The latter method of unionization is less common, especially in the U.S. South, where weak or openly hostile labor laws have historically empowered employers to be more combative towards unions.
Florida lawmakers this year, for example, passed a law (SB 1296) banning voluntary union recognition in the public sector, with exceptions for public safety unions. Voluntarily recognizing a union is generally considered by unions to be a sign of good faith from the employer, negating the need for a union election.
Research has found that union membership helps reduce gender and racial wage gaps, and is associated with 15 to 20 percent higher wages on average historically.
A report recently released by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive (though officially nonpartisan) think tank, found that tripling union membership in the U.S. would deliver a 14.5 percent raise for the median worker, amounting to more than $7,700 in annual earnings.
Currently, about 11 percent of U.S. workers have union representation, far below the more than 30 percent union density of the 1950s (you know, that golden era when America was great?). In Florida, just over 6 percent of workers in the state currently have union representation, according to federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Making the pivot
According to a union representative, the TWU also represents Menzies Aviation fuelers at the Fort Worth-Dallas International Airport, where fuelers recently received a $1 to $3 hourly raise and a higher meal allowance, according to a memorandum of understanding.
Interestingly, the aircraft fuelers at Orlando International Airport were previously represented by a different union, the United Services Workers Union, until the fuelers opted to decertify the USWU as their union this past May. A spokesperson for the TWU, in the interest of not stirring the pot, declined to comment on the workers’ pivot towards their union.
The USWU, however, has been described by critics elsewhere as a “sham union” and “management’s best friend,” carrying with it the implication that its union contracts will be weaker, with more concessions, providing meager if any benefits to workers who pay dues to the organization to represent them.
The USWU is also an affiliate of the International Union of Journeymen and Allied Trades, a union that has similarly gained a reputation for being a “fake” union, accused of acting on the interests of management and not for the workers.
Just last week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the USWU and IUJAT had reached a $3.85 million settlement with the federal government over allegations of “falsely certifying that they were eligible for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.” The program was created to assist small businesses negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Transport Workers Union, in contrast, describes itself as “America’s Democratic Fighting Union.” The union has fought back against efforts to replace transit workers with autonomous vehicles, secured “historic” pay raises for Southwest Airlines flight attendants during contract negotiations in 2024, and tells Orlando Weekly it is now the largest union representing airline workers at MCO.
