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Union Strike Aims to Snarl LAX Thanksgiving Traffic – But Airport Employees Say They Dont Support it!

Nov. 21, 2012 11:45am Becket Adams

Members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) on Wednesday will stage a “huge” rally outside Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), tying up traffic on one of the airport’s busiest days of the year.

“More than 1.792 million passengers — an 0.3 percent increase over last year — are expected to pass through LAX over the Thanksgiving holiday travel period, which began last Friday and ends Monday,” Contra Costa Times reports.

“LAX is expected to be second only to Chicago-O’Hare International Airport in passenger volume,” the report adds.

So, naturally, a large labor demonstration will lead to “complications.”

The rally is expected to last from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Times. The LAPD has advised travelers to arrive at least two hours early for domestic flights and three hours for international flights.

“Passengers arriving during this five-hour period are advised to add an additional 90 minutes to their planned drive time,” the LAPD said in a statement.

So why is the SEIU trying to disrupt LAX on one of its busiest days of the year?

Well, according to union leaders, airport management has “violat[ed] the city’s living-wage ordinance” and has “eliminated affordable healthcare for more than 400 workers.”

“The union says about 400 airport workers were left without a contract earlier this year when Aviation Safeguards, a unit of Command Security Corp. of Parsippany, N.J., terminated contracts with the Service Employees International Union and withdrew all health insurance,” Contra Costa Times reports.

However, what SEIU leaders fail to mention is the fact that a) Aviation Safeguards has been trying to get out of the union since last year and b) Aviation Safeguards employees are not in favor of the Thanksgiving-eve demonstration.

“We petitioned to leave the SEIU almost a year ago, and the contract ended,” Frederick McNeil of Aviation Safeguards said. “And now they’re bringing in outsiders to block travelers who are just trying to get home for the holidays. It’s ridiculous. People need to understand that SEIU doesn’t speak for the employees at Aviation Safeguards.”

Tell that to Mike Garcia, president of SEIU United Service Workers West.

“By allowing the situation to continue, LAX is punishing the good contractors who play by the rules,” said Garcia. “Things at the airport have gotten out of control, and workers are ready to take action.”

Rally organizers say they expect approximately 1,000 union members to participate in the demonstration.

Most of the SEIU protesters “will not even be LAX workers. They don’t work here and they don’t know our company,” said Andres Cazares, who has been with Aviation Safeguards for 19 years.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

Front page photo courtesy the AP.

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Comments (65)

jessieH
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 4:03pm
Unions will destroy this country if they aren’t stopped. The fact that Trumpka has a key to the White House is scary, enough.

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- Bluebonnet
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 5:25pm
  All the reasons to HATE the Satanic unions! They have no soul, disrupt peoples vacations and Thanksgiving trips. The sooner America gets rid of the unions the better.\
  I avoid anything I know is controlled by unions.
  They take your dues, give themselves high salaries for being thugs and support liberals whether you like it or not. And what exactly do YOU get out of it? You’d probably make more money on your own.
  
  Report this comment
- cosette
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 7:06pm
  Bluebonnet….. look on the bright side. In this case the turmoil and chaos is caused in the bluest state in the union. I find it enjoyable, looking at the lines of frustrated angry passengers, 70% of who voted for ObaMao, being the target of the very unions that helped them elect Barry. And the now unemployed 18,000 idiot union Obots who voted themselves into the unemployment lines due to their hatred of the company, Hostess, for which they worked. Unions and the people who support them, the bane of humanity, all suffering together. Four more years of it, I feel like a kid at Christmas.
  
  Report this comment
satman40
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 4:00pm
Unions have been busing in voter for years, what else is new…

Wait till taxpayer start paying for all the public service workers retirement, I can see the value of housing declining and the population moving out of the area…

Reminds me of Greece…

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Old Tex
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 3:25pm
Public unions legally embezzle money from Hard working TAX PAYERS…They are a CANCER on America…Tax payers have the POWER to get rid of them….It’s called the ballot box…In closed shop states …they are akin to the UNCONSTITUTIONAL affirmative action garbage…Forcing employers ( TAX PAYERS ) to pay bloated wages and benefits for unqualified LAZY TAKERS…. It’s time to start hiring based on MERIT ,, QUALIFICATIONS and CHARACTER….And paying based on those MERITS….PUBLIC unions suck because they protect inferior workers who actually are a LIABILITY instead of an ASSET…

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- athynz
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 4:44pm
  How have unions been – as you say “…legally embezzle money from Hard working TAX PAYERS…”? Do you have any sort of proof to back that up? I eagerly await your reply.
  
  Report this comment
- HisNameWasRobertPaulson
  Posted on November 22, 2012 at 3:52am
  Athynz, or whatever you want to be called, the poster did NOT say ‘unions’, the poster said PUBLIC UNIONS… There is a difference, and you know this. You KNOW you know this. You failed right out of the gate.
  
  Considering that you left that out on purpose in your pathetic attempt to try and rephrase the argument from what it was into what you want it to be, I believe that is point, set, and match.
  
  Report this comment
jhforsythe
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 3:25pm
This is why other administrations opposed public sector unions. Reagan correctly fired the air traffic controllers. Obama owes his soul to the unions.

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mr. parker
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 2:45pm
Union goonery at its finest. Mindless thugs. Too ignorant to think for themselves.
Just like the nurses in SF, going on strike-real professionals-throw their intentionally negligent azzes out of work. They’ve already got temporary replacements.

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- athynz
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 4:49pm
  Indeed – completely unable to think for themselves and protest that the fat cats getting even fatter while they take paycut after paycut… wait that could never happen in the auto industry or even for an iconic company like Hostess… oh wait…
  
  Report this comment
dontbotherme
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 2:27pm
What a bunch of thug bullies. I wish they would end up in jail where they belong. That will never happen, though, because they are obama’s buds.

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EqualJustice
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 2:14pm
Obama won.. we LOST.. again. The unions will now totally screw up the rest of the country for good.

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JustAnAverageCitizen
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:54pm
Unions are just bullies. No one should be forced to employ people they otherwise wouldn’t employ. There are a lot of bad employees in unions and in mafia-like fashion, they keep their jobs and wages high even though they aren’t worth the money. There was a time and a place when Unions were useful and necessary, but that time has passed. What can be done to disband them????

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searcher619
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:13pm
This should be illegal and grounds for disbanding of a union. Only people who actually work at the location should be allowed to stage a strike. Leaving a union should be simple and NOT result in losing your job. Being forced to join a union to be allowed to work anywhere should be illegal. Why hasn’t anyone challenged this practice in court yet?

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VoteRightDammit
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:09pm
SEIU:

“Hey! Let’s see if we can destroy LAX like we did at Hostess! Wouldn’t THAT be fun !!!!”

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- athynz
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 4:51pm
  Right – because the 80-300% raises that the CEO and executives at hostess got didn’t do one damned thing… nor did the inept mismanagement of the company… it was the rank and file workers who have gone through 2 other wage and benefit cuts while the management got raises. Right, it was the unions…
  
  Report this comment
- HisNameWasRobertPaulson
  Posted on November 22, 2012 at 3:54am
  Athynz, your pathetic talking points are HILARIOUS!!!
  
  What about the cut that the union takes? Hmmm? Do you have an answer for that? Or do you need to check with your boss over at Moveondotorg first?
  
  Report this comment
- TheFounder
  Posted on November 28, 2012 at 4:03pm
  Athynz…….. Imagine you start a company, YES I know its a long shot but just stay with me here. You start a company, build it from ground up, and hire who you think are the best people for the job and pay them a fair wage. Then lets say some years in after hard work and sacrafice (hope im not losing you yet) you go union and all the sudden your paying people who you dont want working for you at all, plus paying them more than you could ever imagine, in return this drives the cost of your product up which then drives down your sales and slowly but surely you lose everything becuase its unsustainable business model. Now your watching the money dwindle and dwindle until your company is a fraction of what it used to be. YES I am sure at that point you would feel like you are entitled to what money is left over in the company because you guessed it, you built that company. BUT YOUR SUGGESTING YOU WOULD JUST HAND THE REST TO YOUR EMPLOYEES WHO YOU DIDNT WANT THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE AND WATCH YOUR COMPANY VANISH…………..you must be what they call a “Mental Giant”
  
  Report this comment
Arshloch
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:06pm
Well that explains where all the ‘twinkies’ went, they joined a union and tried to keep the productive part of society from normal operations.

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TexPat
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:04pm
Alright civilized American loving people. Lets get rid of these union thugs. We do not need Union Thugs, or Hitler Brown Shirts ruining our businesses and country. The Unions like the Government has overgrown it usefulness. The truly bad part is that the WH does not think this activity is wrong.

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- myptofvu
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:30pm
  How do you suggest we get rid of them? You could start a campaign to boycott union shops but that will only affect the private sector unions. How do you get rid of the pulic ones? Any ideas?
  
  Report this comment
- usedCZARsalesman
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 9:56pm
  MYP, you are right that private sector unions are not truely the problem. (They were in the auto industry, as the wages and pensions destroyed those budgets…but that is not the norm with PRIVATE unions)
  
  We need to petition our elected officials to pass a law abolishing all public unions and making it illegal for to form one. People that CHOOSE to work for the American taxpayer have NO right to demand more of the publics money. Could you imagine what would happen if the military formed a public sector union and went on strike? The military budget would be 2 TRILLION dollars within a year or two.
  
  Dissolving and outlawing public unions would fix 90% of local budget shortfalls practically overnight
  
  Report this comment
thegreatcarnac
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 12:46pm
SEIU…….Stomping Excellence International Union
Motto…….we will go anywhere to commit thuggery
Honorary member in good standing= = = Prez obama….a card carrying Chicago thug.

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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 12:37pm
Way to try to get people to be sympathetic to your plight, f¥€k with them and make them angry.
Hopefully, the law of unintended consequences will cause people to start having contempt for unions.

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65Mustang
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 12:29pm
Isn’t it Andy Sterens that is head of the SEIU…what do you expect from an Obama surrogate? “Upside down and inside out,” poor idiots always being told what to do and when to do it.

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- GardenoftheGods
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:13pm
  Andy Stern isn’t the head of SEIU anymore, there’s a woman in charge now. In any case, SEIU is nothing but thugs that see their power decreasing as Americans wake up to Union thievery. I grew up as a child of a union organizer (1199, the parent to SEIU) & I can tell you that I vehemently HATE ALL UNIONS. The people who work for the union NEVER loses anything; while the strikers go broke…it’s just stupidity times 10!
  
  Report this comment
- armyofnibiru
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:16pm
  no it’s the soviet UNION that runs them,,puddie poot.(KGB.)
  
  Report this comment
Geopatriot
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 12:26pm
Once again, The “Unions” show off what they are made of. When the Unions are on strike, the workers don’t get paid. All of the dues that are taken from the workers on a monthly basis don’t return to the workers during that time, or any other time. They expect the workers to go out and act like idiots with their yelling and picket lines without being reimbursed. Of course the Unions do pay the thugs and the other idiots to do “special acts” during a strike. We’ve saw that in Wisconson during the attempt to recall the Governor. No wonder President Obama strongly supports the Unions…They’re not all that bright either!

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- armyofnibiru
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:01pm
  you safegaurd employees be carefull.seiu dosn’t care about you.they will use you as a catalyst to shut down your company.thats their goal ,not your welfare.(well they want you on govnt wellfare).they will do to you what they did to HOSTESS.and the last i heard of andy stern he was running seiu international,becaues he was running from the law here.(probably got a secret pardon by now).
  
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JUSTANOTHEROPINION
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 12:16pm
With all of the safety and labor regulations on the books and enforced in todays workforce Unions are no longer needed. Unions may have the abillity to close down buisness but when they do they also put the workers (whom they decrie they are looking out for) out of a job. Union workers=STUPID PEOPLE.

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HotFixIt
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 12:11pm
Keep it up unions… sure.. go ahead.. they just turn more people against them. UNIONS kill the twinky, UNIONS bother me when I am trying to get home for Thanksgiving, UNIONS get in my way…. yes, keep it up and some day soon the people will get smart enough to vote the unions out of their lives.

Oh, I do live for the day there are enough people who do wake up.

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hauschild
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 12:01pm
Losers.

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Cavallo
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 11:56am
Ahhh.. so those employees that don’t want to be a part of the Bolsheviks are “not playing by the rules” eh? Those employees better be careful. The Unions have no moral problems damaging your property, or murdering you or your families.

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- athynz
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 4:57pm
  Just as you have no moral issues wishing them harm.
  
  Report this comment
The_Jerk
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 11:51am
Swallow the pill and fire them all. Re-hire non-union at lower wages and benefits.

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Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 11:51am
Sung to the YMCA

LA, so you want to go, I say LA, you want to go…
To Grand….ma’s…House….for…..Turkey. (Bomp, Bomp Bomp)
But you won’t get by the S…E I U, I say you won’t get by the S….E I U.

We will make you stay, In LA because….we……want……you……to.

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Tri-ox
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 11:48am
As usual – obama’s unionists doing what they do best – destroying America.

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- CatB
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 11:57am
  Yes .. just like their leader.
  
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- armyofnibiru
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:06pm
  to bad most of his supporters did’nt know what he ment by hope for change.
  
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Cavallo
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 11:48am
I hope they get run over… by a very large foreign made SUV.

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- chips1
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 12:11pm
  The crosswalks are clearly marked. Hope they learned to color within the lines as a kid!!!!
  
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- athynz
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 4:48pm
  Imagine that – you wishing harm on someone you don’t agree with… Typical – like many of the other blind people in this forum.
  
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- HisNameWasRobertPaulson
  Posted on November 22, 2012 at 3:55am
  Athynz, are you really this pathetic? Or do you really live in your underpants?
  
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- HOOT_OWL
  Posted on November 23, 2012 at 7:31pm
  Ah yes, comrade athynz is proudly wearing his brown shirt and is here to set things right.
  
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kickagrandma
Posted on November 21, 2012 at 11:48am
Let me see. How does one say politely, “SCREW ALL unions”? (Not talking about union of marriage there, guys… calm down).

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- GhostOfJefferson
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 12:34pm
  I find the best way to say that is with a Remington model 700 in .338 Lapua Mag.
  
  Some people would use this to say that I’m not a “people person”.
  
  Report this comment
- mr. parker
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 2:46pm
  @ghosofjefferson: No, use supressed .22 rifles, aim at the groins of the leaders. It works for the Israelis.
  
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