DULLES, Va. — Hundreds of workers at our area’s airports are hoping they get help from a federal stimulus bill so they can keep helping others.
“It’s very slow right now,” said Kwaku Agyeman. The 63-year-old Guyanan immigrant said that his hours pushing wheelchairs at Dulles International Airport have been cut in half. He says he is one of the fortunate ones. Labor unions representing airport contractors say more than 500 workers at Dulles and Reagan National Airport have already been laid off.
“We need the money for us so at least we can pay our rents,” said Agyeman, who now lives in Alexandria. He has been eyeing a federal stimulus bill that has $3 billion bound for airport contractors, according to the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union. Agyeman hopes companies that employ janitors, baggage handlers and wheelchair agents help employees before they help themselves.
“I’m confident that it will happen, that we’ll get some money,” said Agyeman. “But as to how they’re going to do it, I don’t know.”
$3 billion is just a fraction of the $60 billion that’s bound for the nation’s airlines. Even still, labor unions hope it leads to airport contractors rehiring hundreds of workers.
Ageyman says on a normal day he’ll push 10-15 wheelchair-bound passengers to their flights. Now, he says that number has dropped to two a day.
“If I don’t get a paycheck, it means I have to be a homeless person,” Agyeman said.