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Now Arriving at America’s Airports: Unions

Service employees from Boston to Los Angeles are winning raises and gaining leverage in a bright patch for organized labor.
Travelers gather inside the check-in area for JetBlue Airways Corp. at Logan International Airport.
Photographer: Scott Eisen/Bloomberg

During the first weeks of 2018, subcontracted service staff at Virginia’s Reagan National and Dulles International airports got a raise. So did baggage handlers, cabin cleaners, and wheelchair attendants at Boston’s Logan airport, who also staged a 36-hour strike to defend their right to organize.

Soon, under laws passed last year, workers at other airports across the country, from Chicago to Los Angeles, will be getting wage bumps, too.