MIAMI, Fla. — For those who visit or live in Miami, you know it is a tourist and hospitality destination. But the people behind attractions are suffering while business is booming.
One workers union hopes to give their clients competitive pay to keep them and their companies happy.
“It’s hard for us,” said Tavarius Cooley. “It starts with us. We greet the guests, we give them great experiences, and they just need to do what’s right and that’s pay us equal pay at today’s economy.”
Cooley has been working as a food service worker in the park where the Miami Marlins play for the past 10 years. He said the company that pays him, Levy Restaurants, has not been paying him and his colleagues their worth.
“It’s a struggle for all of us to get to work. A lot of people don’t have transportation. Like me, I’m a single father. I have to work two jobs just to provide for my family. A lot of people are not able to do that,” stated Cooley.
He’s hit a breaking point after his rent went up $500 last month.
Maria Sanchez said her rent went up $900. In Spanish, she told Florida 24 Network, “The truth is, we don’t know how we are going to be able to keep going.”
Sanchez has been working out of Miami International Airport for the past ten years packing the food eaten on planes and in terminals. She’s doing better than most of her peers, getting paid $15.60 an hour by the company Sky Chefs.
According to Miami-Dade County, the living wage minimum is over $18 an hour. It’s a far cry from what the close to a thousand employees at the airport and hundreds at the ballpark receive.
“Never in my life did I think I would know people who sleep in their car,” said Sanchez in Spanish. “There are people who work together who have decided to live together. There are people who carpool. There are people who go to work in their bikes. People who used to have a car. And I am in shock because I think, sooner or later, I will be at that same level.”
Wendi Walsh is with Unite Here Local 355 which represents both groups of workers.
She said bargaining agreements with Levy Restaurants and Sky Chefs have expired, which is why they are back at the table.
Sky Chefs, one of the world's largest airline catering companies, shared with Florida 24, “Our employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement with their union. Our company is currently involved in good faith negotiations with the union that will govern wages and the many other issues covered by the contract.”
Walsh shared, “The workers are not asking to get rich. They are asking to get by.”
Walsh said bargaining discussions are continuing this week with Levy Restaurants, and are hoping to come to terms before the baseball season ends.
“We absolutely have to surpass a $20 mark," Walsh said. "I think the minimum living wage will surpass $20 by October, but I don’t think that’s really a number you can live on in South Florida.”
Levy Restaurants said in a statement, “We value our team members and we’re committed to the bargaining process with Unite Here Local 355, which represents our team members at LoanDepot Park. We look forward to working together with the union to reach a fair agreement at the bargaining table, with negotiations scheduled to continue later this week.”
While there’s no date for when these negotiations need to be finalized, those who are providing services hope an end is in sight.
“We arrived to this country with a bag full of dreams, the American dream,” states Sanchez with tears in her eyes. “I arrived in this country in 2001, and never in my life have I lived what I am living right now.”
