Bids for a three-gate expansion at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport's Terminal 2 have been delayed a month because of labor unrest between Sun Country Airlines and its unionized pilots.
On Monday, the Metropolitan Airports Commission voted to postpone consideration of the bid package until its June 15 meeting in light of ongoing contract talks at Sun Country.
Terminal 2 has 10 gates used by Sun Country, Condor Airlines, Icelandair and Southwest Airlines. The $35 million expansion, expected to be completed by October 2016, would increase the number of gates to 13.
Commissioners spent most of their meeting listening to public comments over a proposal to raise the minimum wage paid to airport workers.
They asked the commission's staff to come up with language for a minimum wage that is $1 higher than the state's. It would be applied to employees of third-party contractors at the airport. The commission plans to vote on the proposal in June.
Representatives of airline and business groups spoke in opposition of raising the minimum wage. The Service Employees International Union urged commissioners to create an even higher minimum, and several airport workers also spoke in favor of that.
Javier Morillo, president of SEIU Local 26, said that if commissioners don't believe workers should be paid more than $10 an hour, they should be transparent about that. "Say it to these workers' faces and vote on it," Morillo said.
The commission asked staff to analyze SEIU's proposal that the airport instead pay a prevailing wage, which would be equivalent to public work wages paid to the majority of workers in the metro area. The commission also will investigate allegations that sick-leave policies enacted in December are not being enforced.
