Why Indianapolis Airport police, fire can unionize but not baggage handlers, others

Teamsters and the operating engineers unions are puzzled why the Indianapolis Airport Authority, which includes the AFL-CIO director, former union president of the WBNA and pro-union Mayor Joe Hogsett's appointees, has refused to give bargaining rights for airport workers.

What's even more puzzling, leadership in the two unions say, is that the board that governs the airport granted airport police and firefighters the right to unionize in 2019, but excluded baggage handlers, bus drivers, maintenance crew, janitorial staff and others.

"If any unit within the company, no matter who they are, deserve to have the freedom of choice (to join a union)," said Lloyd Osborne, an organizer with the Operating Engineers local 399, "why would you then say, the other employees do not have the freedom of choice."

Airport workers don't have the same rights to organize as private sector employees, who have this right under the National Labor Relations Act. Thus, they need local authority to spell out that right.

In 2008 the Airport Authority passed a law allowing bargaining to occur only to rescind it three years later.

Barbara Glass, the president of the Indianapolis Airport Authority, said firefighters and police employees told the board they want to unionize in 2019. But they have not heard from the other employees. The 11-member board includes six Hogsett appointees, an appointee from the president of the City-County Council, and officials from Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, and Morgan Counties.

The dynamic is not unique to Indianapolis. Police and fire unions have been carved out of anti-union laws for decades. In 2013, a then Republican-controlled Michigan government exempted police and fire employees from a law that prohibited mandatory union membership. Wisconsin police and fire were also excluded from similar legislation in 2011.

Fight over union rights at the Indianapolis Airport

The fight at the airport between two local unions and the Indianapolis Airport Authority is a sign of unions struggling to exert influence, even in a city that's governed by the pro-union Democratic Party.

Union membership has been on the decline for decades in Indiana as the number of factory and production jobs steeply declined. In the wake of the decrease, Indiana lawmakers made it harder to unionize, with measures such as making it illegal to require union membership and dismantling public sector unions.

The state's union-represented workforce dropped from more than one in five workers to fewer than one in 10 in the last three plus decades, further weakening their political power, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But union organizing has seen a resurgence in the last few years, led by low-wage workers who are struggling amid growing income inequality across the country.

A history of bad blood

The operating engineers unions' frustration with the Indianapolis Airport Authority goes back more than a decade.

In 2011 as the airport maintenance crew were bargaining for their first contract, the Airport Authority rescinded their rights and disbanded the union, said Osborne, who has represented the operating engineers for decades.

"There was a lot of fear that was instilled into those workers that if they talked to the union, they could be terminated," he said.

Fast forward to 2019, when firefighters and police successfully reinstated their right to bargain.

Hank Harris, the president of the local firefighters' union, said that those working in the airport were among the few in the Indianapolis area that didn't have union representation.

Harris was among a number of people who wrote to the airport board, Hogsett and the City Council to lobby on behalf of the non-unionized airport employees. Indianapolis Airport Authority member Brett Voorhies, who is also the president of the Indiana State AFL-CIO, was another.

Hogsett declined an interview for this story and referred questions to the Airport Authority.

Dustin Roach, the president of the Teamster Local 135, said he'd like to see the board take a vote on the issue. And if it passes, that would give the workers a chance to decide for themselves, he said.

"We're not asking them to become Teamsters. They're not automatically going to be union if they don't want it," he said, "just the ability to form a union."

Binghui Huang can be reached at 317-385-1595 and Bhuang@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why Indianapolis Airport police, fire can unionize but not others