Over three hundred Sea Tac Airport employees, labor advocates, and politicians gathered at a park just east of the runways by South 188th Street and International Blvd. at noon today for over an hour of speeches, then marched south to Angle Lake Park to gather again. Many celebrated the sun and warm weather, but all complained about bad working conditions including low salaries, generally minimum wage or lower, paid to taxi drivers, jet fuelers, skycaps and others.

One America partnered with Working Washington to celebrate International Workers' Day, technically May 1 with the goal to fight for a future with good jobs.

"We want to bring fair wages and good working conditions to nearly 4,000 workers at our airport who make poverty wages," Thea Levkovitz, event communications director, told the Highline Times before the rally. Some may recognize her as the former coordinator for the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition.

"They get minimum wage, irregular hours, and not always 40 a week," she added. "Those who do have access to health care benefits pay a quarter of their earnings for it. I also hear terrible stories of employee mistreatment. Fifty-one percent of the flights are from Alaska Airlines, and the Port of Seattle is a public entity. We own it. It's our port. Right now the airlines, including Alaska, subcontracting cabin cleaners, ramp workers, people who put the fuel in the planes. That being said, all the jobs are important.

"Alaska Airlines made $287 million in 2011 and paid out $54 million in bonuses last year," Levkovitz said. "These people did not share in those bonuses. The people who take your grandmother to the gate in the wheelchair, the people that take your baggage from one plane to the next, all these people are the face of the airlines and they're the ones who make your trip efficient, easy, pleasant. Alaska Airlines and the Port of Seattle all benefit from they hard work and they're like, invisible."

Leonard A. Smith is Organizing Director, Teamsters Local 117. "We represent over 16,000 workers in the state of Washington plus a lot of people at the airport, and we're organizing a lot of people at the airport including all the taxi cabs in the city," he said. "Taxi drivers pay extortionist fees for the privilege of working 16 hours a day, six days a week, and aren't making any money. The Port of Seattle authorized the payment to contractors such as Yellow Cab. These agreements are approved by the Port Commissioners."

There is no guarantee that taxi drivers even make minimum wage. Gurminder Kahlon has been a Yellow Cab taxi driver at the airport for over a decade.

"We have to pay huge amounts of money to the Port of Seattle, $306 per week for the privilege of picking people up at the airport," he said. He joined about 100 other airport taxi drivers at the rally. The march was led by about eight retired yellow taxi cabs for visual effect.

"it's very hard to make a living," added Kahlon. "We are independent contractors and have to pay dues. It's too high. We have to pay a dispatch fee to Yellow Cab, then labor and industrial insurance to the state. We feel we are singled out. Because of high gas prices, the airport pushes taxi drivers to buy new hybrid taxis. They cost $25,000 to $30,000 and not many loans are available to buy one."