Envoy Airport Agents on Capitol Hill Urge Congress to Help them Get Union Vote

Ben Belty, who works at the Louisville International Airport, just wants to vote.

Shannon Kitchen, a station agent at the Jack Brooks Regional Airport in Beaumont, TX, also wants that chance. So does Richard Coleman from the Los Angeles International Airport. Ditto for John Zupancic of Pittsburgh International Airport and Alphonzo Dandridge, Jr. of Memphis International Airport.

They and 30 coworkers representing over 5,300 employees of Envoy – known until recently as American Eagle – came to the nation's capital yesterday to ask members of Congress to contact the National Mediation Board on their behalf to let them vote to join CWA.

"The NMB is dragging its feet about letting us vote for a union," Dandridge said. "We have done all our work, collected our signatures, more than 60% of us signed cards, and we turned them in but the NMB is holding us back."

35 agents representing over 5,300 employees of Envoy, which provides ground services for carriers at 110 airports around the country, meet at CWA before heading to Capitol Hill to ask their members of Congress to contact the National Mediation Board to "let us vote."

The workers have waited since turning in the cards on May 11 while an NMB investigator tried to decide who is eligible to participate in the election. The investigator wrongly disqualified more than half of the workers from being eligible to vote. But, as the full NMB board considers their appeal, time is running out. Every day of delay causes more agents to grow discouraged and quit, hopeless that things will improve any time soon.

Mervin Douglas of Miami International Airport says he's nearing the end of his rope. Struggling to pay his bills on his income, despite working as much as 60 hours per week at about $10/hour and wracked by injuries on the job, he believes getting a union could begin to correct some of the issues they are facing on the job.

"You know you're trying to do something. Injuries are slowing you down. You're not making enough money to take care of yourself and raise a family. If there's no union, what should I do, where should I turn? What choice do I have? I really don't have a choice. I have to go find something else," Douglas said.

In the last week, workers quickly gathered more than 1,200 signatures of coworkers on a petition demanding an end to the waiting and for the election. They brought the petition to Congress yesterday asking their elected representatives to contact the NMB and urge them to move ahead with a decision on their case in an expedited manner.

Shannon Kitchen loves her job as an Envoy station agent at a Beaumont, TX, airport but would very much like to make it a better job by making it a union job.

Before going to the Hill, CWA President Chris Shelton, joined by CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens and AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson, welcomed the workers to Washington and assured them the union is standing behind them in their struggles.

"What you're doing today is probably one of the most important things you've ever done to form a union," Shelton said. "If we convince members of Congress to act, we can bring the pressure that we need on the NMB. Then maybe the NMB will do what they have to do."

The workers met the staff of 20 elected officials, including U.S. Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI 2nd District) and John Yarmouth (D-KY 3rd District).

"Everyone else at American Airlines has a voice through a union," Shannon Kitchen said. "We just want the opportunity to vote on a union."