City debates rent break for CLT company as workers prepare to lose insurance
Hundreds of airport workers are expected to lose their employer-provided health insurance next week after about two months on furlough, as city leaders debate giving their employer a break on rent.
A city council vote on rent relief for the workers’ employer, HMSHost, scheduled for Tuesday was delayed after workers protested giving the company a financial break without conditions that employee health insurance would be continued.
About 1,000 HMSHost employees at Charlotte Douglas International Airport concessions are currently furloughed, workers union Unite Here Local 23 spokesman Stuart Mora told the Observer.
And Mora said one HMSHost employee has tested positive for COVID-19 as of this week.
Now, about 700 people — employees and their family members — could lose their HMSHost-provided health insurance, Mora says.
HMSHost sent a letter to the workers’ union on May 21, notifying employees that the temporary continuation of health care benefits for furloughed employees would end on June 4, according to the letter obtained by the Observer.
Meanwhile, the Charlotte City Council has been debating a recommendation from the city’s airport economic recovery task force to give the airport’s primary concession companies, HMSHost and Paradies, and those companies’ smaller partners, a break in contract payments, adding up to roughly $7 million in rent relief and program support.
Lifelong Charlotte resident William Voltz told city council Tuesday he has worked for HMSHost for 12 years as a warehouse supervisor. He’s been working part-time during the COVID-19 pandemic, but he could still be at risk of losing his HMSHost-provided health care next week.
“As I work, I come in contact with hundreds of people, employees and passengers,” he said Tuesday. “And to be putting our health at risk every day and to be in fear that we’re getting ready to lose our health care is unacceptable.”
HMSHost employee Jeanette McClure was furloughed in late March after the company closed the Tequileria restaurant where she works at the airport, she told the Observer at the time.
Without her job, she was worried she wouldn’t have enough money to help her daughter, who has lupus, pay for medications.
“Sometimes, it’s a choice between money and your life,” McClure told the Observer in March.
Some city council members raised concerns Tuesday that workers weren’t more involved in the task force. The task force is made up of city council members, airport store owners, and other local business leaders.
“I will not support anything that does not use all the leverage that we have to get as much for workers as possible,” council member Braxton Winston said Tuesday. “We have to remember, that is what we are here for, first and foremost. We are here first and foremost to ensure the safety of our people, and not just our corporations.”
HMSHost says the travel industry has been “devastated” by diving passenger traffic due to COVID-19.
“HMSHost has covered health and welfare benefits for our furloughed associates since March,” an HMSHost spokesperson said in a statement. “In an environment where we have little to no sales, we continue to make difficult decisions to keep our business going and preserve our ability to bring back furloughed associates in the future. We remain committed to bringing back as many associates as possible when travel resumes to normal levels.”
Council member Ed Driggs opposed adding a condition to the rent relief that would require the company continue providing health insurance to furloughed workers.
Charlotte City Council will vote on the rent relief proposal Monday, Driggs said.
Driggs said the airport concessions companies have seen up to an 85% drop of income, and it’s likely HMSHost would not accept the terms of the rent relief if it came attached to health insurance requirements.
“If we tried to do this the way they would like to, the unintended consequences would make everybody worse off,” he said. “And therefore, I think we should just stick with the original priority of helping out the employer and expect that the employees will benefit from the fact that they still have jobs.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 7:30 AM.
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