10 Feb 29th–March 6th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | represents SSP America workers, filed a complaint on Jan. 22 with the National Labor Relations Board alleging the company violated federal labor law by wrongly firing three union employees. The union also filed complaints on Dec. 6 with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and the Phoenix Equal Opportunity Department alleging racial disparities in pay, hiring and internal promotion at SSP’s airport operations. Smith told New Times that the Equal Opportunity Department still had not responded to the complaint more than two months after it was filed. SSP America did not respond to a New Times request for comment on the complaints. In November, more than 400 SSP America workers held a one-day strike, protesting meager wages and unclean working conditions, including the presence of rats and cockroaches. They held another strike two days before Thanksgiving. Service workers are not the only ones raising voices at Sky Harbor. On Feb. 13, flight attendants walked out to demand better pay and working conditions. Black whistleblower at Sky Harbor fired At the Feb. 15 press conference, former SSP America employee Jasmine Glass spoke out about being fired on Jan. 22. Several former colleagues stood behind her in solidarity. Glass, who is Black, was a cashier at Sky Harbor but said she was asked numerous times to work as a server when SSP America was short-staffed. “Yet when I showed interest in applying to the position full-time, upper manage- ment told me I would need to memorize every liquor we offered, a requirement other servers and bartenders told me they didn’t have to complete to get their posi- tions,” Glass said. “In this industry, your position deter- mines how much you make, whether you can afford rent and groceries. Too often, Black workers and other workers of color are the ones working in the back of the house as dishwashers, the lowest-paying jobs, but not as servers or bartenders, the highest-paying jobs,” she added. Holt said at the press conference that council members should ask whether SSP was “doing what it is supposed to be doing” or “looking for things to go out the window.” “When a young lady comes forward and says, ‘I feel that I’m able to do a job,’ why can’t she do it? When a person says, ‘I know that I can do this,’ why come up with something that says you can’t?” Holt asked. “This young woman and her coworkers are enduring to the end, and we stand with them until the end, enduring until the end, until we see the end of this injustice.” Glass came forward as a public whistle- blower in the December complaints to the city and Mayes. Weeks later, she was fired by SSP America when the company alleged there was money missing from a cash register during a shift that Glass worked, according to Glass and Smith. The union did not provide documenta- tion of Glass making any statements about what happened during her shift, but she said the timing seemed “weird” and that she had never had problems before with cash management. Smith told New Times that other employees had been accused of similar misdeeds but had not been disciplined by being fired. Glass said she cried after being fired. “It’s not easy really finding jobs right now. I’ve applied to 10, 15 jobs, and no one got back to me. So it’s like, super debili- tating,” Glass said. In the meantime, she is working in a phone bank for the union. She said the opportunity to speak out about her former employer has been “rewarding.” ‘Airport Inequities’ from p 7 Bishop Anthony Holt, president of the West Valley chapter of the NAACP, spoke out about the concerns of workers at Sky Harbor during a press conference on Feb. 15. (Photo by TJ L’Heureux)
