Airport workers rally for higher wages, union power

Concession workers at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport are pushing for $15 hourly wages and the power to form a union, just days after the Milwaukee Bucks’ recent launch of the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization (MASH), which guarantees these standards for workers in the new Bucks arena district.

Milwaukee workers from the airport gathered today at the airport to present their demands before the press. Workers from fast food establishments and hospitals joined them in support. At the rally, County Supervisor Marcelia Nicholson proposed an ordinance as a solution to extending MASH job standards to airport concession workers, according to a press release. 

The rally joined other protests across the country on the 50th anniversary of the sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tenn., which sparked the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-led 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. 

Workers part of the Fight for $15, a national movement pushing for $15 wages and union power for fast-food workers, participated in the rally, voicing their support.

The Bucks partnered with the Alliance for Good Jobs to launch MASH, which will place 1,000 workers in arena district hospitality and service jobs that will pay a minimum hourly wage of $12.50, increasing to $15 by 2023.