"Probe sought in New Orleans airport bias claim"

Friday, September 24, 2004

Probe sought in N.O. airport bias claim
Landrieu calls on Congress to investigate
By Bruce Alpert
The New Orleans (LA) Times Picayune


WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., wants congressional investigators
to look into allegations that some African-American security screeners at
the Louis Armstrong International Airport have been subjected to racial
discrimination. 

After receiving several complaints from New Orleans and seeing reports of
similar problems at other airports, Landrieu said, she decided an
investigation by the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, the
investigatory arm of Congress, is needed. She added an amendment to the $36
billion Homeland Security spending bill approved unanimously by the Senate
ordering that a probe be completed within six months. 
 
Final wording of the bill still must be worked out by Senate and House
negotiators. 

"Constituents come to my Senate office seeking help with a wide variety of
issues," Landrieu said. "Occasionally, someone will ask for help with a
situation that involves workers and their employers. In this case, the
employer is the federal government." 

Without commenting directly on specific complaints, Lauren Stover, a
Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, spokeswoman, said the agency
is working to create a workplace that is hospitable to all workers. She said
TSA is proud that 75 percent of the screeners at Louis Armstrong
International Airport are minorities. 

Pauletta Davis Washington, 44, a lead screener at Louis Armstrong
International Airport, said she has been subjected to insults and unfounded
allegations leveled against her work performance. She attributed some of it
to retaliation because she has filed a formal complaint of discrimination. 

"They will not leave me alone," said Davis Washington, who is
African-American. 

In one instance, she said, a supervisor "cursed and spit" at her, and then
loudly demanded that "I bring my a -- over to the management office. The
treatment was very demeaning." 

She said black screeners have been routinely denied promotions to
management, and were passed over by white workers she considered less
qualified. 

Stover said TSA's New Orleans director, Michael Robinson, has developed a
number of programs to improve the work atmosphere since he took over in
March. A screener advisory panel meets weekly with managers to make
recommendations on not only how to improve security, but how to improve
manager-screener relations, she said. 

Robinson also appointed an aggressive "model workplace manager" whose
responsibilities include working with employees to make them sensitive to
the needs of a diverse workforce, Stover said. 

Under the Landrieu amendment, the GAO is directed to examine TSA's
compliance with equal employment opportunity laws and to examine whether
there are any systematic problems. Her amendment also directs the GAO to
determine whether the federal transportation security agency is complying
with laws giving hiring preference to veterans. 

Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, said he also has received a complaint
about racial discrimination against TSA screeners, and has asked the
Department of Homeland Security, which oversees TSA, to investigate,
spokeswoman Melanie Roussell said. 

She said the department has agreed to report on its findings later this
month. Roussell said Jefferson also will back Landrieu's call for a GAO
investigation. 

The TSA, which employs about 45,000 screeners nationwide, including about
350 at Louis Armstrong International Airport, took over responsibility for
screening passengers in 2002 after complaints that private screeners on duty
during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks had not done an adequate job.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************