Over 500 non-union contracted wheelchair attendants, baggage handlers and airplane cleaners will go on strike Thursday morning to protest low wages and unfair labor practices committed by their employers, Prospect Aviation Services and PrimeFlight Airline Services.

Workers say they're making as little as $7.25 an hour and have no affordable health benefits or sick days. They are asking Prospect Airport Services and PrimeFlight Airline Services to comply with a living wage law passed last year that requires pay of $10.88 or more per hour at city-owned facilities.

Airport workers have been fighting for higher wages and better job conditions for three years having significant victories like the approval from voters to extend the City’s living wage law (then $10.88/hour) to cover subcontractor employees at city-owned facilities like the Philadelphia airport.

Last year, Mayor Nutter also issued an executive order implementing an even higher wage rate for those workers.  “Despite all these actions by airport workers and the community, these airline contractors have done little in response and workers are still waiting for a decent wage,” the coalition of workers said.

Tom Wyatt, candidate for City Council at-large publicly expressed his support for the workers. “I stand with the members of SEIU 32BJ in their fight for a living wage. My first job out of high school was working for minimum wage at the local Burger King, and I know how hard it was to struggle to make ends meet. $7.25 is not enough,” Wyatt said.

“Over a quarter of Philadelphia’s population is in poverty. It’s unconscionable that workers at our airport, owned by our city, can work full time and still be in poverty. Our city depends on our working families — we need great jobs, and more of them,” he added.