Unions Grow Organizing Push at LAX.

After scoring a coup by organizing the biggest subcontractor at Los Angeles International Airport last month, labor leaders are now expanding their quest to unionize security workers, skycaps and other service providers throughout LAX.

Service Employees International Union Local 1877 worked for nearly three years to unionize Argenbright Security Services, which contracts with United Airlines and Delta Air-lines in three terminals at LAX. With that battle over, the union is now turning its attention toward unionizing contractors at terminals leased by American Airlines and Southwest Air-lines.

"Now the gauntlet is down for American," said Jono Shaffer, director of the union's "Respect at LAX" campaign. "We'd like to see them step up to the plate and say, 'We're not going to have a big nasty fight with the unions."'

American Airlines did not respond to queries regarding the campaign.

The fight at LAX comes at a time of increased union activity throughout Los Angeles. Following a string of recent contract victories, labor leaders are turning their attention to areas that have previously been off limits to unions, particularly L.A.'s huge manufacturing industry. The recent victory with Argenbright has also led to hopes that the entire airport's service sector can be organized.

Slightly less than half of LAX's 50,000-person workforce is currently unionized, according to local labor leaders. Most of them are airline employees (flight attendants, mechanics, ground crew and pilots) who have been unionized for years.

But the airlines' contractors and subcontractors -- which provide everything from security services to baggage handling to shuttle-bus driving -- have remained largely nonunion shops. And it is these operations that labor organizers have been targeting.

Over the past two and a half years, they have successfully unionized some 2,400 LAX contract workers, culminating with the 900 Argenbright Security workers last month.

(Ironically, nonunion operations initially became pervasive at LAX as a result of airlines' efforts to cut payroll costs by contracting out, to nonunion firms, services that their own unionized workforces once performed.)

As for their current organizing efforts, union officials are pressuring both American and Southwest to remain neutral during the union's organization campaign and refrain from launching their own efforts to convince workers not to join.

Shaffer said Argenbright won't be able to compete if it remains the only LAX subcontractor required to pay union wages and benefits.

"Their costs go up 10 to 15 percent over market, and that's too much for them to compete," Shaffer said. "We need to get significant market share in the passenger services and security sectors in order to be able to negotiate good contracts (with the airlines and their contractors)."

The next target is the 175 workers employed by American's subcontractor at terminals 3 and 4, Globe Airport Security Services. Company officials declined to comment on their plans to handle the union campaign.

Meanwhile, workers for subcontractor Huntleigh Aviation Services in Terminal 1, which is leased by Southwest, have also expressed a desire to join the union. SEIU is conducting the airport campaign in conjunction with Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Union Local 814.

Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said the company is "completely neutral" on the unionization issue.

Huntleigh, which employs nonunion skycaps, baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants and other service workers, declined comment.

Over at Terminal 2, lessor Northwest Airlines terminated its contract last month with Argenbright when that company finally agreed to a card-check election. That led to the displacement of approximately 140 workers. Simultaneously, Northwest let go several nonunion Huntleigh security screeners.

In their place, Northwest hired a new contractor, Aviation Safeguards, which has a contract with the Allied International Union (AIU). Local organizers characterized AIU as a less-militant union and suggested Northwest's move may have been motivated by the airline's desire to head off organizing by the SEIU.

Northwest officials were not immediately available for comment last week.

Bolstered by pressure from L.A. City Council and the airport's Board of Commissioners, the union finally prevailed upon Northwest to compel Aviation Safeguards to rehire the Argenbright workers in question. Whether those workers will be represented by AIU or SEIU remains unresolved.

While SEIU Local 1877 would obviously like to bring the former Argenbright workers into its fold, the question of whether AIU has a legal claim to them must be resolved before it can make a move, according to Mary Anne Howenstein, SEIU's local organizing director.

Regarding American/Globe and Southwest/Huntleigh, Shaffer says the union is waiting to see how they respond, in the wake of Argenbright, before plotting its next step. "They can choose to be in or out of our spotlight," he said.

These contractors are experiencing unique difficulties as non-union private-sector employers in a public-sector environment.

It is worth noting that L.A. County Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Miguel Contreras was recently reappointed to the airport Board of Commissioners following the June 30 expiration of his previous term. Many industry observers believe his tenure has facilitated the LAX unionization effort.

For its part, Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Union Local 814 has signed agreements with CA-1 Food Service, Encounter Restaurant, retail concessionaire W.H. Smith and Hosts Marriott, according to Edward Iny, a research associate with the campaign. These contracts cover over 1,500 workers.

In addition, the local has a card-check neutrality agreement with Duty Free Shops, the outcome of which is pending.