Workers who clean airplanes, remove trash and help with wheelchairs at Charlotte’s airport went on strike Monday during a busy week of Thanksgiving travel to demand higher wages.
The Service Employees International Union announced the strike in a statement early Monday, saying the workers would demand “an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the holiday travel season.” Union spokesperson Shwetha Ganesh said in a statement Friday that the strike would last 24 hours. Representatives didn’t immediately answer questions Monday about whether the timeframe had changed.
Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, the ninth busiest in the U.S. The two companies contract with American Airlines to provide services including cleaning airplane interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs.
Russia’s military captured a British national fighting with Ukrainian troops who have occupied part of Russia’s Kursk region, according to reports Monday, as Moscow began daylight drone attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine and its ground forces accelerated gains along parts of the front line.
The Briton was identified by state news agency Tass and other media as James Scott Rhys Anderson. Tass quoted him as saying that he had served as a signalman in the British army for four years and then joined the International Legion of Ukraine, formed early on in Russia’s nearly 3-year-old war against its neighbor.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces are straining to hold at bay a push by Russia’s bigger army at places in the eastern Donetsk region. Russian forces recently have gained ground at “a significantly quicker rate” than they did in the whole of last year, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank.
At least 19 people in Minnesota have been sickened by E. coli poisoning tied to a national recall of more than 167,000 pounds of potentially tainted ground beef, federal health officials said.
Detroit-based Wolverine Packing Co. recalled the meat this week after Minnesota state agriculture officials reported multiple illnesses and found that a sample of the product tested positive for E. coli O157:H7, which can cause life-threatening infections. The ground beef was sent to restaurants nationwide.
Four of those who fell ill were hospitalized, including two people who developed a serious complication that can cause kidney failure, an official with the Minnesota health department said.
Bridget Schmid can be reached at schm1520@stthomas.edu.