

Since the election, a lot has been written about the widespread anger people feel about the economy. Many think it is rigged in favor of the rich and worry that working Americans put in longer hours for less money. America does not feel fair any more for millions of ordinary people whom the political elites ignore. Working people are slipping behind.

I know all about that. I work a low-wage job at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. I endure long hours of difficult and physically demanding labor. I am about to graduate from college and I help support my parents after my father lost his job at a factory. But even though I work hard and live at home, I barely have enough money to pay my bills.

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That makes me angry. I am standing up for my rights and demanding a fair minimum wage of $15 an hour for all Americans. On Tuesday I will do something I have never done before: I will go on strike and risk arrest to make sure our voices are heard.

Workers at nearly 20 of the busiest airports around the country will join the Fight for $15 protests. We will send a powerful message to these corporations: that it’s time they start respecting the people who care for the nearly 2 million passengers who travel through those major airports each day.

Airport workers will join thousands of fast-food employees walking off their jobs in more than 340 cities across America. Our fight for fair wages and union rights has spread to America’s airports where people like me do vital jobs that help keep our nation’s airlines running.

When the Fight for $15 movement began in New York City in 2012 many people did not take it seriously. Since then, though, more than 20 million Americans have gotten a raise. The struggle has moved beyond the fast-food industry and now includes home care, childcare, university, retail, building service and other workers.

It has made $15 an hour the new standard in New York, California and Seattle. Home-care workers in Massachusetts and Oregon won $15-an-hour minimum wages. Huge companies, such as Facebook and Aetna, have raised pay to $15 an hour or higher. When we fight together, we win better wages.

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We are not asking a lot. We do hard jobs. I am a wheelchair attendant who also guards jetways and helps escort unaccompanied minors. I have stood out in jetways in -30F weather with only a thin flannel to keep me warm. I have been told to push two wheelchairs at once. I have worked 17-hour shifts. I get cuts and bruises all the time. But every day I go home and do not know if I have earned enough to get by.

A raise to $15 an hour would make a huge difference to me. It would help me pay for my school. It would mean I can keep looking after my parents. It would mean I might have money to spend on something other than just surviving.

While the aviation industry rakes in $36bn in profits, workers like me scrape by. Airports are a symbol of the concerted effort to erode the ability of working people to improve their jobs. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired and permanently replaced 11,000 striking air traffic controllers. That paved the way for a decades-long effort by corporations and elected officials to systematically dismantle workers’ rights to join together on the job. This Tuesday, we will begin to transform airport jobs once again – only this time into good jobs.