Charlotte City Council is expected to vote Monday on a new 10-year airline use and lease agreement for Charlotte Douglas International Airport that would support more than $20 billion in airport improvements and development.
The Service Employees International Union is urging the city to secure additional benefits for contract workers at the airport. American Airlines opposes those efforts.
The debate comes after Republican lawmakers in Raleigh included language in the state budget this summer prohibiting municipalities from dictating working conditions for private employers.
In a podcast interview last week, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis said he would push for an independent authority to oversee Charlotte Douglas if City Council does not approve the lease agreement.
"If anybody here in local government steps out of line and challenges or threatens the independence of that airport, I will move heaven and earth to create that airport authority, and the legislative authorization sits there," Tillis said. "Don't want to, but would have to if all of a sudden I think people that are elected to do a million things think that they know how to run that airport."
Council is also scheduled to vote Monday on new rules for e-bikes and changes to the city's ordinances governing street vendors.
