Town Hall Shines Spotlight on Poverty Wages at American Airlines

Piedmont agent Heather Hudson shared her powerful personal story of how the American Airlines-owned subsidiary is paying its workers poverty wages at a town hall event hosted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday in Washington, D.C.

"When I started at American's Piedmont Airlines in Charlotte, N.C., over 10 years ago, I earned less than $8 an hour," said Hudson at the event which was live streamed to over a million viewers on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. "My current salary, after a decade of working for Piedmont, is now less than $14.50 an hour. I cannot make ends meet without working extra hours. I work 12-hour days, but even with this additional time, I still qualify for Medicaid and food stamps and have been receiving that support for the past five years."

Hudson pointed out that the starting wage at Piedmont Airlines is still only $8.50 an hour, and that many of her coworkers are working double shifts every single day or working second jobs at fast food restaurants just to make ends meet. 

"This is what it's all about," Sanders said, responding to Hudson's story. "Somebody who works hard at a stressful job, year after year after year, and you and your coworkers have to walk into offices to get food stamps because the company that made $1.9 billion last year apparently doesn't have enough money to pay you and your colleagues a living wage. That is an outrage."

Workers from Amazon, Disney, McDonald's, and Walmart also participated in the town hall. Sanders invited CEOs from those corporations to attend as well but they chose not to.

CWA members at American's Piedmont Airlines and Envoy Air subsidiaries are fighting for fair contracts and living wages for passenger service workers.

Check out highlights of Hudson's remarks here and the full event here.

Piedmont agent Heather Hudson (second from right) was featured at a town hall event hosted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday in Washington, D.C., along with workers from Amazon, Disney, McDonald's, and Walmart.