LGA Airport Screeners Allege Violations Of Workers’ Rights

LGA Airport Screeners Allege Violations Of Workers’
Rights
Queens Chronicle, NY 
 
February 19, 2004 
 
 
   An organization representing approximately 150
LaGuardia Airport screeners is threatening a
class-action civil lawsuit against the Transportation
Security Administration in connection with allegations
of rampant violations of workers’ rights by
management. 
   The Metropolitan Airport Workers Association is
alleging violations from management that range from
dangerous working conditions to racism. The
organization charges that the allegedly unsatisfactory
working conditions not only create a burden on
LaGuardia’s screeners, but also threaten national
security.  
   MAWA wants to see an open-door policy with
management established, so that workers will have
their grievances addressed. One of the complaints from
the group is that management at LaGuardia has been
unresponsive to the concerns and complaints that have
been raised. 
   “Management has not shown in any way, shape, or
form that it plans on addressing the issues that are
being raised by LaGuardia Airport screeners,” said
Miguel Shamah, acting vice president of the
Springfield Gardens-based MAWA. 
   Shamah said that airport workers meet at a town
hall-like meeting with management every six months,
but described them as “not fruitful meetings” to
address employee complaints. 
   “We want an open-door policy with management that
actually works,” he said. “We have town hall meetings,
but you get no results out of it. Let’s try to rectify
the situation. Let’s fix what’s broken.” 
   However, Ann Davis, a TSA spokeswoman, denied the
allegations made by MAWA. Davis refused to comment
about the lawsuit threat, but detailed several outlets
that airport screeners can turn to about safety and
injury concerns. 
   For one, she said that LaGuardia Airport, like most
airports, has a safety commission that is comprised,
in part, by representatives of the baggage screeners.
TSA also has an on-site office at LaGuardia where
employees can file worker-compensation claims. 
   In addition, Davis said, there are nine managers
who meet with baggage screeners before their shift to
brief them on safety issues. Information is also
available to workers through the company’s Intranet
system, as well as a monthly newsletter. 
   All baggage screeners must participate in a minimum
of 100 training hours, as well as taking annual
re-certification exams. 
   “It’s required, it’s the law and it’s done,” Davis
said. 
   Shamah said that MAWA sends between two to three
letters a week to management addressing issues raised
by airport screeners—the organization has recently
expanded to include about 60 workers from Kennedy—but
either gets no response, or receives a form letter
indicating that the complaints would be looked into. 
   “It falls on deaf ears,” Shamah said. 
   The poor working conditions alleged by MAWA are
blamed mostly on understaffing and unresponsiveness
from management toward worker injuries. Out of more
than 700 screeners at LaGuardia, 160 got hurt on the
job last year, according MAWA’s reports. 
   “That’s a third of the workforce,” Shamah said. 
   He indicated that the majority of injuries to
workers are back and shoulder ailments attributed to
heavy lifting. A request to provide screeners with
Kevlar-laced gloves—which police officers wear for
protection—was denied. 
   Thomas Wilkins, federal security director for the
TSA, informed Shamah in a December 2003 letter that
the gloves “have been found to offer limited
protection against cuts, but not needle sticks.”
Wilkins indicated that the TSA was conducting field
tests on several different gloves to determine whether
they offer protection from cuts and needle sticks. 
   Shamah, 34, who has worked as a screener at
LaGuardia since September 2002, said he is going
through a series of blood tests after being punctured
while searching through a bag. 
   “It’s scary, but if I had gloves, this wouldn’t be
an issue,” he said. 
   MAWA has written letters to the federal
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
complaining about the lack of OSHA Safety and Health
posters being displayed at LaGuardia Airport. OSHA
responded by displaying several copies of the posters
in the Delta/Northwest baggage screening room. 
   However, OSHA decided against conducting an
inspection in response to a complaint from MAWA about
the lack of displayed OSHA posters, as well as a
failure to provide the organization with a copy of the
injury and illness logs (it is required that an
employee at the airport who requests a log be given
one). Lawrence King, safety coordinator for the TSA,
was told to conduct an investigation into the
complaint in a letter written last month by Harvey
Shapiro, area director for OSHA. 
   According to Shamah, the short staffing at
LaGuardia has left “one screener doing the job of two
or three screeners. 
   “We’re extremely overworked, so fatigue is a major
issue,” he added. 
   Along with its allegations of unsafe working
conditions, MAWA contends that this environment
represents a threat to national security. 
   “It’s a huge impact of security when you have
screeners who dread coming to work every day,” Shamah
said. “It brings down the morale of workers and they
could begin to hate their jobs. That is a dangerous
thing when it comes down to national security.” 
 

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