A Logan Airport worker canceled a biopsy appointment after being told it would cost him $4,000 out of pocket. Another has gone unpaid for a month while her insurer drags its feet on approving postoperative checkups following shoulder surgery. Their stories are now central to a growing push by service workers demanding that the Massachusetts Port Authority set minimum health insurance standards for the roughly 2,200 contracted employees who handle baggage, wheelchair assistance, and other essential duties at the airport.
The campaign has been building for months. As reported by The Boston Globe, workers rallied before Massport's board on September 8 and have since launched a letter-writing campaign demanding improved health benefits. Health coverage has become a key issue in ongoing negotiations between subcontractor employers and Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which represents roughly 2,500 airport service workers and has been bargaining with subcontractors over a new contract since July.
Juan Baez, one of the workers pressing the issue, told the Globe that workers need health insurance that actually covers the services they require and that requires employers to pay their share. Baez said he paid a $1,500 copay for an MRI and later canceled a biopsy appointment after learning it would cost him $4,000 out of pocket.
A Coverage Gap Fifteen Times the State Average
The scale of the problem is stark. A June 2026 report co-published by 32BJ SEIU and the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center found that while 66 percent of Massachusetts residents have employer-sponsored health insurance, only 27 percent of 32BJ service workers at Logan are covered by their employers' plans. The same report found that 30 percent of Logan subcontractor workers were uninsured entirely, according to the union report — a rate the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center says is 15 times higher than the state's 2 percent overall uninsurance rate.
The report also found that insured subcontractor workers worry that exorbitant health care costs will eat into their ability to pay for other needs, per the union report. Even where employer plans exist, enrollment is often too costly to make sense: the same June 2026 study found that only 29 percent of eligible full-time employees at one of Logan's largest service contractors enroll in the employer-offered plan, and the company spends an average of just $1.02 per hour per eligible worker on healthcare as a result.
Some workers earn wages too high to qualify for Medicaid, pushing them toward state or federal coverage instead. Yanira Hernandez is one of them — she has a subsidized Massachusetts Health Connector plan because she cannot access employer insurance and is ineligible for Medicaid. The Health Connector, which serves nearly 350,000 enrolled residents statewide, has not made things easy for her: her insurance provider delayed approvals for postoperative checkups following shoulder surgery six months before publication, and she has used all of her paid leave waiting on those delays. She has also gone unpaid for a month, she said. Hernandez said a more stable insurance plan would reduce her concerns about her health and her ability to keep working.
Massport's Wage Precedent Versus Its Benefits Stance
The union's argument leans heavily on precedent. Massport first set a mandatory minimum wage floor of $11 per hour for aviation service workers at Logan in January 2016, following state legislative proposals, according to CommonWealth Beacon. Over the past decade, 32BJ pushed that wage floor up to the current $19.75 per hour, including a push for an increase in 2025. Massport does set minimum employment standards for Logan workers — but it currently has no minimum health care standards, even as employers remain responsible for subcontractor workers' wages and benefit packages.
Kevin Brown, 32BJ's executive vice president and Massachusetts union leader, said the union has received no response from Massport on improving health benefit standards. Unions are now pushing Massport to adopt updated health care requirements before a new contract is finalized. Massport spokesperson Jennifer Mehigan wrote, per an email to Massport, that health benefits should be negotiated by workers and their employers at the bargaining table — not set by the airport authority.
That triangular structure is central to the dispute. As WGBH News reported, the roughly 2,200 contracted service workers at Logan work for private companies hired by the airlines, not for Massport itself, which underpins Massport's position that benefits belong at the bargaining table rather than in airport-wide rules.
Regional Precedent Adds Pressure
Workers and organizers point to neighboring states as evidence that airport authorities can go further. Under expanded provisions of New York's Healthy Terminals Act that took effect January 1, 2026, private contractors at JFK and LaGuardia airports must provide covered workers with a health and welfare supplement of at least $5.55 per hour — up to $222 per week — or equivalent employer-sponsored benefits. New Jersey enacted its own Healthy Terminals Act back in April 2021 for Newark Liberty International Airport, mandating prevailing wage levels and benefit contributions tied to federal McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act standards. New York-area airports generally require subcontractors to provide health care contributions under state law, giving Logan workers a direct regional comparison to point to in negotiations.
The health care push follows other recent friction between Logan's contracted workforce and both subcontractors and Massport. In April 2025, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced a $3.1 million settlement with Logan subcontractor Swissport USA to resolve allegations of wage theft, untimely pay, and unpaid overtime affecting approximately 2,100 airport workers — a case Hoodline previously reported. And on May 1, 2026, a 10-union coalition representing Logan workers held a May Day demonstration in East Boston challenging Massport rules that limit public protests at the airport to 10 people, part of a broader push for expanded organizing rights.
32BJ, the largest property service union in the country, represents approximately 190,000 service workers along the East Coast, including more than 20,000 members in Massachusetts across property, security, and airport sectors. With subcontractor negotiations ongoing since July, health coverage has emerged as one of the most contentious sticking points as workers wait to see whether Massport will weigh in before a new contract is reached.
