Labor protest closes roads near LAX
Airline catering workers’ rally snarls pre-Thanksgiving traffic, leads to 16 arrests
Airline catering workers’ rally snarls pre-Thanksgiving traffic and leads to 16 arrests.
A labor protest near Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday evening forced road closures and led to more than a dozen arrests, officials said.
Sixteen people were arrested during the demonstration around LAX, which ran from 5 to 8 p.m., according to Los Angeles Airport Police spokesman Rob Pedregon. The protesters were arrested on suspicion of remaining at an unlawful assembly and booked at LAPD Pacific Division station, he said.
The protest temporarily closed parts of Century and Sepulveda boulevards, disrupting traffic for Thanksgiving travelers headed home for the holidays.
The demonstration was part of a coordinated job action by catering workers at 17 airports nationwide, including those in San Francisco and San Diego, to protest low wages, according to a news release from the union Unite Here.
“Though their work is essential to airline operations, one in four workers who provide food and drinks to American Airlines at its hubs and who work for subcontractors LSG Sky Chefs and Gate Gourmet earn less than $12 per hour, including many who have been in their jobs for over a decade,” the release reads.
LAX officials called the rush-hour protest “an unfortunate and unnecessary disruption of traffic and possibly operations because of an airline catering wage dispute and a labor action that will be taking place across the country.”
Earlier Tuesday, a suspicious item found outside LAX also created a traffic nightmare.
The item was discovered at 8:40 a.m. at Century and Avion Drive. LAX Police said a bomb squad was dispatched and by 9:10 a.m. had secured the item and determined there was no hazard to the public.
But the law enforcement response shut down traffic on Century, one of the main arteries into the airport. Traffic was backed up even after roads reopened.
The week of Thanksgiving is typically the most crowded time of year at LAX, the nation’s secondbusiest airport. About 3.2 million passengers are expected to travel though the airport during the two-week period around the holiday, officials said.
Tuesday was expected to be the fourth-busiest day for vehicle traffic around the airport from Nov. 20 to Dec. 3. Even more cars are expected to arrive at LAX terminals on Wednesday, Sunday and Monday, officials said.