Somali-American airport worker begins term on airports commission
On a historic afternoon at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the Metropolitan Airports Commission on Tuesday swore in its first Somali-American member.
Ibrahim Mohamed took a seat among the 14 commissioners that run the main Twin Cities airport and six smaller airports, from Anoka to Lakeville.
Gov. Mark Dayton appointed Mohamed as the first front-line employee to serve on the commission, capping an impressive climb for a man who started on the ground floor.
"I have been working at the airport for 11 years," Mohamed said. "The first job I started at the airport was as a baggage runner."
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Since then, he's been a plane cabin cleaner, a restroom attendant and a ticket verifier, among other things. For the past six years, he's been a cart driver — an airport employee who shuttles people who have difficulty walking.
Mohamed, of Rosemount, is married and a father of five. He will serve on the commission until 2019. He hopes to bring a customer service perspective to the commission.
"I speak with the passengers, more than 100 passengers a day," he said. "So I always ask about this airport, and how do they like it and what is good for them."
Mohamed brings his experience as an immigrant, something he shares with many airport workers. He came to the United States from Somalia in 2004, and expects to contribute an East African perspective to the commission.
In that way, the Metropolitan Airports Commission joins the Minneapolis City Council and Minneapolis School Board with fairly new representatives from the Somali-American community.
Mohamed also has the backing of union activists, some of whom have been engaged in union organizing at airports across the country.
A nationwide movement to institute a $15 an hour minimum wage got an early boost at Seattle's airport when voters approved a minimum wage for airport workers in 2013. In Minneapolis, a wage protest by airport workers and their supporters shut down road access to the airport in December.
Having on-the-ground perspective will help the commission as it deals more and more with wage issues, said Dan Boivin, who chairs the airports commission.
"We have a lot of discussions coming up here about our workers, what they're paid, what their benefits are, how they're being treated," Boivin said. "And this whole model that's going on in the airline — and to a certain degree in the airport industry — of outsourcing jobs."