Service workers union 32BJ SEIU has welcomed life-changing benefits for thousands of workers at both LaGuardia and JFK airports in the recently-approved state budget, which includes measures to expand paid vacation and improve health insurance for all airport workers across New York State.
The state budget included expansions to the existing New York Healthy Terminals Act, which was first introduced in 2021 and established wage standards at airports across New York as well as providing coverage for full-time workers.
The expansion introduced in the long-overdue 2025-26 state budget included measures to provide coverage to an additional 15,000 workers not covered under the original act, including ramp, cargo, concessionaire, retail and part-time workers.
The expansion also includes two to five weeks of paid vacation for airport workers depending on seniority as well as securing an additional 10 paid holidays every year, 32BJ SEIU says.
Currently, employers are required to provide only seven days of state-mandated paid sick leave, while there is no mandated vacation time. Additionally, employers are currently only mandated to provide one paid holiday every year.
The budget does not guarantee a specific number of paid vacation days or holidays, but 32BJ SEIU pointed to language in the budget that ties annual paid leave to the Contract Services Act, a federal standard which typically sets paid leave at between two and five weeks depending on seniority. It also provides 11 paid federal holidays every year.
Changes to the Healthy Terminals Act are slated to go into effect in January 2026 and will feature an exemption for small employers with ten employees or fewer, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
“This ensures workers in all New York City regional airports receive the same standard wages and health benefits,” Hochul said in a release.
32BJ SEIU President Manny Pastreich said the expansion will impact thousands of lives and ensure the health and safety of airports across the state.
“Securing the health benefit supplement and ensuring paid vacation and holidays will be transformative for our members and all airport workers,” Pastreich said in a statement.
32BJ SEIU member Venitia Rodney, who works as a security officer at JFK, said the expansion to the Healthy Terminals Act to include workers who were initially excluded from the law will be transformative for many workers.
“Health insurance is life changing,” Rodney said in a statement. “Before we secured affordable health insurance a few years ago, I was forced to skip half of my blood pressure prescription due to the cost. I had limited access to doctors, and most specialists were not covered.
“Thanks to our health insurance, I have been able to consult specialists, afford my prescription, and obtain the appropriate spectacles.”
Rodney said issues such as a foot problem that prevents a worker from standing or walking would have previously been devastating for the impacted worker. She said such an injury would previously require a worker to take all of their paid time off and stay home, resulting in excessive days off and penalties for using additional time. She added that excessive time off could lead to an employee being written up or suspended, which can lead to a termination.
“Having insurance is crucial to us. It relieves the stress of not being able to see a doctor when needed, enabling early detection of health issues.”
Pedro Gamboa Bermudez, a 68-year-old baggage handler and organizer at JFK, said he has been fighting alongside his colleagues for better working conditions for over a decade and added that the recent expansion to the Healthy Terminals Act “means so much.”
Bermudez said he saw his mother just twice in the last ten years of her life due to a lack of paid vacation days, which prevented him from visiting her in Guatemala.
“I haven’t had any paid vacation days the whole time I’ve been working at JFK,” Bermudez said. “My mom was living in Guatemala, so with no paid vacation, I had to choose between paying my bills and seeing her. In the last decade of her life, I only got to see her twice. And when she passed away last year, I had to wait until this year to hold a mass in her honor.
“To me, these changes represent the dignity we’ve been fighting for. It means nobody has to choose between a paycheck and seeing their loved ones.”
32BJ SEIU said the expansions to the Healthy Terminals Act represent another victory for airport workers, pointing to the Port Authority’s December decision to raise the minimum wage for more than 10,000 airport workers subcontracted by airlines at JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty.
Under the rule approved by the Port Authority, wages would increase from their current $19 per hour to $25 per hour by January 2032 through a combination of annual raises and increases tied to the consumer price index. Airport workers will also see a $2.25 increase by the end of the year.
32BJ SEIU held six months of rallies, job actions, elected official engagement, and vocal advocacy as part of efforts to secure a wage increase for airport workers.
