A top city pol is urging JetBlue to hike wages for airport workers, citing the tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies the airline has raked in.
Harlem City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito sent a letter to JetBlue CEO David Barger on Sunday urging the company to comply with the Port Authority’s directive to hike the hourly rate of contract workers who earn $9 or less by $1 immediately, and eventually to at least $10.10.
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito sent an e-mail to JetBlue CEO David Barger calling for the airline to increase wages. She noted that JetBlue received more than $30 million in city and state subsidies in a 2010 deal for its new Queens headquarters.
“I am writing to express my deep disappointment in JetBlue’s failure to ensure a minimum pay rate of $10.10 per hour for its contract employees. Your competitors, including American and Delta, have agreed that these essential airport operations workers deserve this minimum wage,” Mark-Viverito wrote.
“JetBlue has refused to do the same, and in doing so has created a competitive advantage for itself on the backs of these hardworking New Yorkers,” she said, noting the airline received more than $30 million in city and state subsidies in a 2010 deal for its new Queens headquarters.
JetBlue said in a statement it pays its own crew members “well above” $10.10 per hour, but did not address the lower-paid contract workers, who were the subject of the Port Authority’s directive (source).
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