"New security rules may cost skycap jobs"

Friday, September 14, 2001

New security rules may cost skycap jobs
Baggage handlers worry as curb-side check-in banned, airline reassigns
workers
By Paul Egan
The Detroit (MI) News


   ROMULUS -- Skycaps at Detroit Metropolitan Airport expect they have lost
their jobs because of stricter security rules prompted by Tuesday's terror
attacks by hijackers.

   The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday banned curbside
check-ins. That's bad news for skycaps, who predict longer lines for
passengers inside the terminal.

   Northwest Airlines, the major carrier at Metro, has re-assigned its
skycaps to jobs helping passengers inside the airport, spokeswoman Mary Beth
Schubert said Thursday. The airline has also reduced its contract with
Prospect Airport Services Inc., a company that employs about 20 skycaps at
Metro.

   One or two other companies, hired by other airlines, employ smaller
numbers of skycaps at the airport.

   Jacob Seivers, a skycap at Metro for six years, said he has heard nothing
official from Prospect but fears his job is gone.

   "I'm worried," said Seivers, 24, of Dearborn Heights.

   But it's understandable that the federal government would ban the
practice of airline passengers checking their bags at the curb, he said.
"Inside they can take a few more measures. They can actually have the bag
X-rayed, and the people are there for good, they're not going to leave,"
Seivers said.

   Until now, only random bags on domestic flights were X-rayed, whether
they were checked at the curb or inside the terminal, said Seivers, who is
paid only $3 an hour but said he makes $150 to $200 in tips on a good day.

   "We are unbelievably busy every day of the week," he said. "Airports will
be complete madhouses without outside check-in."

   Officials at Prospect, which also performs other jobs at Metro, did not
return calls for comment on Thursday.

   Wayne County Executive Edward H. McNamara said travelers will have to
start arriving earlier for flights, but "all of this is done for the
protection of the passengers."

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