Miami

Ramp Workers for American, Delta Airlines Strike Thursday at Miami International Airport

What to Know

  • A union organizing the efforts said workers also plan on walking out at Fort Lauderdale / Hollywood International Airport as well.

Ramp workers in charge of both loading and unloading luggage on two of the largest airlines operating out of Miami International Airport took to the picket lines Thursday in an effort to urge their employer to improve working conditions.

Workers for Eulen, the group in charge of plans for both American Airlines and Delta Airlines, are protesting what they call unbearable conditions at the airport – including claims of shifts without breaks, broken equipment, no paid vacation or sick days as well as fears of retaliation for speaking out to management.

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who participated in the first night of the Democratic debates being held in Miami, joined those protesting and called their cause "the fight for workers" across the country.

“Many of us came from difficult countries, we came in search of the American dream,” Esteban Barrios, who has serviced Delta Airlines as a Eulen employee for three years, told the Miami Herald. “It’s turned into a nightmare.”

A union organizing the efforts said workers also plan on walking out at Fort Lauderdale / Hollywood International Airport as well at airports in New York City and Washington, D.C.

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, who along with Booker was in the first night of the debates, is scheduled to appear at the Miami protest in support of the workers Thursday afternoon.

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