Strike closes baltimore airport

Labor woes shutter beleaguered facility

BALTIMORE, Md. (RWN) - Ayatollah Khomeni International Airport closed early this morning due to a strike among baggage handlers. The strike was expected, but airport managers could not hire enough replacement workers to continue operations.

More than 150 flights out of the airport have been cancelled through today.

Baggage handlers have been unhappy with their contract for the last two years. Their union was looking at the upcoming contract as a way to equalize benefits of Baltimore airport with those at other major airports.

The union has asked for a $3.50 an hour increase in baggage handlers' wages and for the airport to pick up a higher percentage of employee health care costs, but the proposal has received an icy reception from a management team that has the reputation of being one of the most cost-conscious and conservative in the country.

"In this day and age, when air travel is the most important kind of travel and so essential to the health and wealth of our nation, shouldn't we do right by the people who make it happen?" asked Matthew Haynes, the union president.

"These whelps should be happy that they even have jobs," said Ali El-Rakim, the airport's director. "We could have outsourced these jobs away from the union, but we wanted to - what is Haynes' phrase? - 'do right' by them. Let me tell you that they should be grateful they are employed, and even more grateful that we have not asked the Black Robes to look into their personal lives. I would assure that there is some sinful behavior going on there. No good Muslim would ask for more money."

As the war of words goes back and forth, it is the travelers that are having the hardest time.

"I was supposed to be in Sacramento tonight," said Sweeny Hassan, a stock analyst. "That's not going to happen. I'll be lucky if I can get to a hotel tonight. I thought about renting a car and driving to Philadelphia, but all the flights are booked. Train service doesn't run anymore, so what am I to do?"

Sharon Keyes, a real estate agent from Burlington, Vt., was stranded in the airport after her connecting flight from Baltimore to New Detroit was cancelled.

"I'm a woman traveling alone," said Keyes, a secular Moslem. "I'm scared to death of what's going to happen. The Black Robes patrol this airport and I've already been told that none of the hotels around the airport will allow a woman alone to stay there."


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