Airport Concession Workers
March for Fair Contract

Airport workers march to support
contract talks with Hudson News Jan. 23.

Calls for competitive wages and good health benefits highlighted a march at the San Jose International Airport at noon. Dozens of airport concession workers and their supporters marched to call attention to efforts to reach a contract settlement with Hudson Group.

Hudson runs many of the retail businesses at the airport that sell newsstand publications, snacks and gifts. Workers joined “UNITE HERE Local 19” last August and began negotiating with the company for fair wages and better health care coverage. Currently, workers say health care coverage under Hudson is substandard, costing employees hundreds of dollars more for medical services than their co-workers employed by other concession companies at the airport.

"We've been concerned about the (company's) attitude toward bargaining and the pace of bargaining to work (differences) out,” said Calvin Miaw, an organizer with UNITE HERE Local 19, the union that represents hospitality workers. "We are very concerned that Hudson will undermine the standards established at the airport," he said.

Contract negotiations are continuing for the first contract Hudson would have with its San Jose Airport workers. The company runs concessions at 74 airports, terminals and transportation centers in the United States and Canada.