Airline workers claim American Airlines and US Airways are keeping
dangerously faulty equipment in use: This is among the items they might
have had in mind.
Attorney Brian Mildenberg filed safety complaints outlining the workers' claims in September with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The agencies substantiated some claims, ordering the airline to correct violations.
Yet problems persist, Mildenberg charged.
He sent a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, asking her to send investigators to see safety violations firsthand. Besides endangering airline workers, the violations also imperil the flying public, Mildenberg warned.
"The largest airline in the world needs to be held to an appropriate standard," Mildenberg wrote.
An American Airlines spokesman denied the company has any safety or discrimination issues.
"The safety of our customers and employees is our highest priority," spokesman Ross Feinstein said. "The training procedures and equipment that we use have been recognized as the best in the industry and fully comply with government safety regulations.
"Likewise, diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our airline," Feinstein added. "Ours is a diverse workforce serving customers who are equally diverse, and we are committed to fostering a work environment that is based on collaborative teamwork and mutual respect. We will vigorously defend our company and the hardworking employees who provide top-quality service to our customers each and every day."
David Smith and Andre Roundtree, two of four named complainants in the FAA and OSHA filings, told the Daily News yesterday that they decided to ask the Justice Department to intervene only after years of getting no relief from the company or union leaders.
"We would go to management and complain [about safety and discrimination concerns], and we would be chastised or threatened or sometimes disciplined," said Roundtree, an American Airlines catering supervisor who lives in Overbrook.
Smith, an American Airlines fleet-service agent from Fern Rock, agreed: "Safety and discrimination are relative to one another. If they truly cared about the people working in the company, they wouldn't let them be exposed to this unfair, unsafe environment."
The alleged safety violations include:
* Repeatedly delaying repairs or maintenance of baggage, catering and other airline trucks and gear. For example, leaky hydraulics cause lifts to collapse and injure employees, leaving many petrified to use them. Roundtree recounted one incident last summer in which a lift he and a co-worker were using to deliver catering carts into the plane caught fire - while they were inside with no fire extinguisher and it was still far above the ground.
* Lavatory trucks, which remove human waste from planes, spill their goo onto the tarmac - sometimes daily.
FAA and OSHA investigating workers' complaints identified several safety violations, and OSHA in March fined the airline $11,000 for "serious violations." Those included broken windshields, headlights, taillights and horns on baggage trucks; unaddressed fuel spills that posed fire hazards; and defective or missing fuel tank caps on service trucks.
In his letter to Lynch, Mildenberg accused the airline of "hiding evidence" by storing faulty vehicles in a North Philly tow lot during OSHA's investigation.
The workers also complained of racial discrimination, alleging:
* Employees use racially offensive nicknames for various jobs or workplaces, such as referring to the tarmac as "Darfur," "the jungle," "the ghetto" and "work-release" because so many baggage, catering and ground-operations crew are minorities.
* Break and control rooms are racially segregated and nicknamed, and black workers get less desirable assignments and fewer overtime opportunities.
The workers calling for the investigation include maintenance, catering, baggage and customer-service workers and one aircraft mechanic.
Mildenberg said he has fielded similar allegations from American Airlines/US Airways workers in Baltimore, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth and North Carolina but hasn't fully investigated those yet.