Janitors who clean Sky Harbor International Airport gathered Tuesday night to protest their working conditions. As KJZZ’s Peter O’Dowd reports, the group has tried unsuccessfully to assemble a union.
PETER O’DOWD: Isabell Marquez says she was fired from her janitorial job at Sky Harbor after she tried to form a union to protest low pay and no benefits. Marquez has since been re-hired, but she says the working environment is still disrespectful for about 200 airport janitors. She says workers must get a doctor’s note to take an unpaid sick day, but the company doesn’t offer insurance.
ISABELL MARQUEZ: Once we get the union in, we’ll have a voice. Right now we don’t have a voice, they don’t give us no raises or benefits at all.
O’DOWD: The janitors are asking the Phoenix City Council to consider the issue ahead of this fall’s vote to award the airport’s cleaning contract. The company that employs the airport janitors, GCA Services, did not respond to requests for comment.
Updated 9/5/2012 at 9:20 a.m.