JFK airport workers who refuel planes plan strike in Memorial Day weekend showdown
NY Post
Workers who refuel the planes at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens plan to go on strike Friday — providing uncertainty for travel plans during the busy Memorial Day weekend, The Post has learned.
Teamsters Local 553 — representing 300 workers and mechanics who fuel commercial and cargo jets at the airport — said it is at loggerheads with Allied Aviation Services, the private firm that services the planes at the regional airports.
The union said it had continuous contracts for decades, but has been working without a collective bargaining agreement since June 30, 2023.
The union went on strike in 2005 in a dispute over compensation and health care.
“We have been without a contract for almost a year, and Allied Aviation has not been negotiating in good faith since they are conditioning any new contract on our forfeiting our right to strike and fight for our members in the future. That is simply a non-starter for us,” said Demos Demopoulos, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 553.
“We will never give up the right to strike and fight for our members, a right granted to us by the National Labor Relations Act,” he said.
