The Wall Street Journal
By Joe Jackson, Melanie Trottman And Andrew Tangel
Updated Oct. 9, 2014 12:29 p.m. ET
Prompted by recent Ebola scares, about 200 cabin cleaners at New York’s La Guardia Airport have walked off the job over what they say are safety concerns.
The protesting workers are employed by Air Serv, which contracts with Delta to clean airplane cabins and bathrooms, and organizers predict the strike will last 24 hours.
Air Serv didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. A Delta spokeswoman expressed support for its contractors, saying in a statement: “We are confident our contractors are focused on providing a safe, lawful and appropriate work environment for their employees.”
Marching outside of Terminal D, the workers walked out Wednesday night around 10 p.m., organizers said. The demonstration is being organized by 32BJ Service Employees International Union, which the workers voted to join earlier this year.
Organizers said the protest is part of a long-running fight for better working conditions that had been brought to the forefront by the Ebola scare. The workers, who clean garbage and human waste from the planes, say they are not given adequate protection.
The protest comes a day after federal officials announced that the U.S. plans to start checking the temperatures of passengers arriving at five airports including New York’s John F. Kennedy International airport and Newark Liberty International in Newark, N.J.
The workers, who don’t deal with international flights, acknowledged that their concerns predate the Ebola scare. Rob Hill, vice president of 32BJ, said, “The issues happened way before Ebola, but it’s now come to a head.”
While JFK receives direct flights from countries in western Africa, there are none to La Guardia, according to Mark Duell, vice president for operations at FlightAware, a flight tracking service.
La Guardia is largely a domestic airport, save for flights to and from Canada, Mr. Duell said. There are no nonstop airline flights between Africa or Europe and the airport, he said.
The strike didn't appear to cause any delays at La Guardia or the two other major New York City airports as of late Thursday morning, Mr. Duell said.
“Everything looks normal,” he said.
Meanwhile, the SEIU, which represents thousands of airport workers across the country and would like to represent more, was conducting its own infectious disease awareness training Thursday for airport cleaners, terminal cleaners and wheelchair attendants at the Clarion Hotel across from La Guardia.
The training covered current guidance from the CDC, the World Health Organization and the International Air Transport Association, the union said.
The union said it is concerned that many airport workers are vulnerable to the threat of Ebola because they’re hired by multiple contractors and are part of a patchwork system that the union says has no centralized way to train them.
The union said contractors are mainly responsible for training the workers but said airlines should also be accountable. The training isn’t happening as it should be, the union said, citing what it said it has heard from workers at the three major airports in the New York area.
“There’s clearly a need from our review for this training and it needs to happen now,” Mark Catlin, the union’s occupational health and safety director, said during an SEIU conference call for reporters Wednesday.
“What we’re hearing is that workers are not aware of this additional gear” that the Centers for Disease Control is recommending for them, Mr. Catlin said. “We’re not going to do the comprehensive training that these airport workers need” but “we want to show them the CDC guidance and what this new protective gear looks like” and how to use it to avoid contamination to themselves or others, he said.
One of the workers planning to attend Thursday’s training is Alberto Grant Jr., a contracted building cleaner who said he works in John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 8.
“We do need the training because on the job the only thing they told us yesterday was that we wash our hands, use gloves and masks,” Mr. Grant said during the SEIU conference call. He said he comes into contact with bodily waste while cleaning bathrooms and runs into blood pathogens while he’s on the job. The equipment his contractor is providing has remained the same and seems inadequate now, he said, including “cheap gloves.”
When asked about how the CDC’s new guidance was being shared with airport workers, Mr. Grant said, “word-of-mouth.” He said he talked to some cabin cleaners who hadn’t been trained by their contractor and didn’t really know about the guidance. “The co-workers I work with, they don’t really watch the news” or read the newspapers, he said.
In a basement conference room at the hotel Thursday, medical volunteers demonstrated how to remove latex gloves to avoid contamination and other useful safety techniques.
Mark Collazo, 45, a respiratory therapist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan brought in by the union, said he was there to give insight on avoiding contamination to Spanish speakers.
“They told me ‘Wow this is very insightful,’” he said.
Striking worker Michael Carey, 47, of Hackensack, N.J., who does interior security checks on Delta planes, said the session was useful. He said he doesn’t get gloves to conduct checks unless he specifically asks for them.
“Being here today has heightened my awareness,” he said. “Tomorrow I’m going to advocate wearing gloves.”
Joel Castillo, 23 years old, of Far Rockaway, who usually works an afternoon shift, said he would not work Thursday. “We’re protesting because we don’t have adequate protection,” he said.
He said sometimes airplane equipment can malfunction, exposing staffers to human waste, and said workers were requesting body suits and durable gloves. He says the current gloves provided are “like paper; they rip easily.”
“If it wasn’t for Ebola, we’d still be striking. But we have heightened concerns because of it,” Mr. Castillo said.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates New York City-area airports, said Thursday that although the workers weren't its employees, the airlines and other companies that employ them are required to meet all applicable federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations in addition to terms of their leases with the agency.
The Global Gateway Alliance, an advocacy group for the city’s airports, didn't directly weigh in on the cabin cleaners’ strike.
But Joseph Sitt, the group’s chairman and founder, said, “in addition to health screenings for passengers, we need to take steps to protect the health and safety of workers and those who rely on the airport as well.”
Source: http://online.wsj.com
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The Obama administrations quest to turn the United States into a third world country continues. From deliberately playing a passive role in foreign policy, his refusal to secure the border and just allowing anyone in, along with allowing third world diseases into our country, his goal continues to be allowing the United States to circle the drain.
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