Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles broke a tie vote on Monday night, deciding that City Council members will not study in a committee ways to improve the working conditions of airport contract workers who do work such as cleaning planes.
For years, the Service Employees International Union has pushed the City Council to raise the pay and improve working conditions of contract workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The union has said some of them earn $14 an hour.
SEIU has called for the City Council to enact an ordinance that would establish “minimum standards for wages, benefits, and training for airport workers employed by airline contractors and permitted businesses.”
SEIU is not legally recognized by the federal government as the official union of the airport contract workers.
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A majority of the City Council has resisted the union's efforts, noting that the city can’t dictate to a private contractor how much to pay its employees. And the city also tries to keep costs low at the airport, where American Airlines has its second-largest hub.
Charlotte Douglas’ low costs are one reason American has so many flights out of the airport.
On Monday, council member Marjorie Molina said the city has to be mindful about the state legislature possibly getting involved if Charlotte is seen to be interjecting itself into private contracts.
She voted against sending the issue to a committee.
She noted that the most recent city budget raises the pay of full-time city workers from $23 an hour to $24 an hour. That doesn’t apply to the roughly 600 contract workers at the airport.
“And I don’t want it to be misstated that this is something that says this isn’t being fair to the people who subcontract at the airport,” she said. “That is not what this message is saying.”
Raleigh worries
Council members Ed Driggs and Malcolm Graham also voted with Molina. They both said it’s a critical time for the city and the General Assembly in Raleigh, which is considering the bill that would increase the sales tax by 1 percentage point to pay for a multi-billion-dollar roads/transit plan.
They noted that legislators tried 12 years ago to take the airport from the city and place it in the hands of an authority. They said that could happen again.
The NC Chamber sent a letter to the city last month stating its opposition to the proposed SEIU ordinance.
But City Council member Renee Johnson argued that the city doesn’t have to pick the lowest bidder, and it could pick a vendor that would pledge to increase pay, working conditions and retention.
Democrats Johnson, Tiawana Brown, LaWana Mayfield, Victoria Watlington and Dimple Ajmera voted to study the issue.
Molina voted with Democrats Graham and Dante Anderson and Republicans Edwin Peacock and Ed Driggs to not send the issue to a committee.
With James Mitchell not at the meeting, that left a 5-5 tie.
At first, Lyles said the effort to send the issue to committee failed because there were only four people who voted for that.
“The motion does not carry,” Lyles said.
Brown then corrected her and said it was a tie.
Lyles then said she would vote “with the majority” to not send the airport contract workers’ request to a committee.
Brown corrected her again and told her there was not a majority and that it was a tie.
“Let’s have correct English here tonight,” Brown said.
Lyles then acknowledged she would be casting the deciding vote.
“This is not ready for us to have on the agenda; it needs more work,” Lyles said.
