On Busy Week, a Busy Hub Is Hit by a Strike

This holiday week may be the busiest travel week on record, and a major airport hub is now navigating a strike on top of that. Services workers have walked off the job at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, reports Fox Business. The workers aren't directly employed by the airlines but are third-party contractors for Prospect Airport Services and ABM, per the AP. They perform tasks such as cleaning cabins and lavatories, removing trash, and escorting passengers in wheelchairs.

"We're on strike today because this is our last resort," ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said in a statement. "We're taking action because our families can't survive." Most of the workers earn between $12.50 and $19 an hour. That works out, at best, to a gross annual income of about $39,500, per the Charlotte Observer. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates a household needs about $70,000 to "comfortably" afford local rent costs.