Airport workers say cleaning company is stealing wages

Yawu Miller

Graciela Flores is not the only one who noticed that the hours on her pay stub were fewer than those on her time card.

Many of her co-workers at Logan Airport made the same complaint: 37-and-a-half hour’s pay for 40 hours of work. Testifying in Spanish before the Workers Rights Board, Flores choked back tears as she described a work environment where she says she was denied vacation days and forced to work weekends in violation of union agreements.

“We have a union book,” she testified before the board. “It’s like our bible. But they ignore it.”

“They” is Hurley of America, a company under contract with the Massachusetts Port Authority to provide cleaning services at Logan International Airport. According to Flores and others who testified at the hearing last week, Hurley of America has routinely skimmed paychecks, denied overtime, benefits and treated workers with little respect.

The workers testified in the City Council’s Piemonte room before a Workers Rights Board, an group of academics and civil rights activists convened by the pro-labor group Jobs with Justice.

“We came here to work hard for our families and our children, not to be humiliated and mistreated,” said Ana Perez, a steward with Service Employees International Union 615, speaking through an interpreter. “People can’t stand it anymore. We’re facing the same problems every day. We are no longer afraid to speak up.”

Hurley of America did not return phone calls from the Banner. A spokesman from Massport said the agency would not comment specifically on the workers’ allegations.

“The labor agreements and grievances are handled between the employer and the employees’ union,” spokesman Phil Orlandella said in a voicemail message. “The employees have a working relationship with the SEIU. We’re very confident that, like in the past, Hurley has worked out different agreements to both parties satisfaction.”

While SEIU officials acknowledged that the union has in the past ironed out agreements with Hurley of America, they said the firm has never stuck to the agreements.

“The union thinks negotiating is not possible,” said Angela DiLeo, commercial division director for SEIU. “We have had several agreements with the firm. They have not followed through.”

A former area manager at Hurley of America, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the company regularly instructed him to skim money from his workers’ pay checks.

“We would take two-and-a-half hours off of their checks,” he said. “When you have 150 employees, that’s a lot of money.”

The former manager said Hurley of America was able to cheat workers out of overtime by requiring that any time worked over 40 hours be recorded on a separate time card with a different name and social security number.

“People who were supposed to be working part-time were really working overtime,” he said. “Many people didn’t have benefits. You would do this because your directors asked you to.”

Members of the Workers Rights Board said the allegations of worker abuse were shocking, but not uncommon.

“It’s not only Hurley of America,” said Bishop Felipe Teixeira. “It’s happening across the country in many immigrant communities. Companies are doing whatever they can to get around the law and take advantage of the most vulnerable people.”

Harvard University professor John Womack said the largely immigrant workforces employed to clean airports in other cities across the country have faced increasingly difficult conditions.

“The United States wants immigrants to do work, but it doesn’t want them to have rights,” he said. “This is the development and expansion of American apartheid.”

Because many workers employed by building maintenance firms are undocumented, they often face deportation if they complain of working conditions. Under those conditions, workers are often cheated and taken advantage of.

Womack said the Bush administration’s business and immigration policies have not made it any easier for the workers.

“It’s not just a pro-business government. It’s a pro-pirate government.”

City Councilor Felix Arroyo, who sat on the Workers Rights Board, said Massport should be held accountable for the treatment of the workers.

“It should not be possible for Massport to wash their hands or tolerate these kinds of practices on their premises,” he said.