By Nicolas Molina

If you're one of the millions of Americans planning to fly to see friends and family for the holidays consider this -- most of the workers assisting you are struggling to survive on poverty wages. Forty-two percent of contracted airport workers live below the poverty line, according a recent survey of workers at the country's 30 busiest airport.

I am one of those airport workers. For 11 years I have worked at Newark Liberty International Airport. I clean United Airlines planes for a contractor called PrimeFlight. I take two buses to get to work because I can't afford to buy a car. I make $10.10 per hour -- that's about $22,000 per year -- less than the federal poverty level for a family of four. That's why we call this a poverty wage.

You can't feed your family on poverty wages.

On Tuesday, thousands of fast food workers, janitors, retail workers, adjunct professors, security officers and many other hardworking people here and across the country will stand together on a national day of action. We will make it clear that we are escalating our demands for $15 and union rights and that we reject the politics of divisiveness that seeks to tear America apart by race, religion and gender.

I will be joining the march because workers like me deserve better.

I am supposed to work full-time, but if the boss says there isn't enough work I am sent home early which means less money in my paycheck. And there are many days that I don't get a lunch break but the money is still taken out of my meager paycheck. Not being able to make ends meet is stressful. I live in fear that one unexpected bill could mean the lights will go off or even worse, an eviction notice.

My story isn't unique. There are some 60 million workers in this country who make less than $15 per hour.

Among them are thousands of contracted airport workers like me who make so little that we have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet or rely on taxpayer government programs in order to put food on the table. Starvation wages don't just hurt workers and their families -- low wages lead to high turnover at airports, which undermines safety and quality of service.

Airport jobs used to be good jobs. But that has changed since the airline industry started outsourcing jobs to often-irresponsible contractors. As a result, airports have become a hub of low-wages, exploitation, unfairness and inequality instead of economic drivers and generators of good jobs.

But the winds of change are coming.

For Tuesday's national day of action, I will be at Newark Liberty Airport -- one of nearly 20 airports where workers will march, rally and take action.

Like millions of other workers, we're part of the Fight For $15 movement that has been sweeping the nation bringing underpaid workers out of the shadows of poverty and into the light of economic opportunity and justice for all.

Nicolas Molina, a Newark resident, is a member of the Airport Workers Organizing Committee which has been organizing with 32BJ SEIU to fight for higher wages for thousands of workers at major airports around the country. He works at Newark Liberty International Airport for a private contractor.

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