Eulen America under fi re for unfair labor practices
BY BILL PARRY
An international ground
services corporation operating
at JFK International Airport
has come under increased
scrutiny by the Queens
Congressional delegation
for its alleged unfair
labor practices.
Congressmembers Grace
Meng, Gregory Meeks, Carolyn
Maloney joined other New
York City leaders in a joint
statement calling out Eulen
America, a Spanish-owned
private contractor for its
treatment of nonunion cabin
cleaners, baggage handlers
and wheelchair attendants to
American Airlines and Delta.
“Over the last several
weeks, we have heard
troubling reports of worker
mistreatment at JFK Airport.
The allegations made by
Eulen America employees
raise serious concerns,” the
Congressional members said
on Aug. 5. “Employees have
accused Eulen of workplace
violations, such as forcing
employees to take their
paid sick days when they
weren’t sick, or lose them,
and not providing employees
allowances for uniform
cleaning, forcing them to pay
for often expensive cleaning
Political pressure has grown against Eulen America for the way it treats workers at JFK Airport.
out of pocket. The allegations
of unfair treatment and
ignoring workers’ rights
are serious, and we are
deeply concerned.”
Eulen America dismissed
the allegations saying it
provides its workforce
team uniforms that require
commercial laundering or
other special treatment, that
it implements a generous
rollover policy for paid leave
and has documentation to
prove it, and Eulen America
claims that the minimum
starting wages for team
members working at JFK is
$19 per hour.
“Eulen America cares
deeply about our workforce
and we are firmly committed
Courtesy of 32BJ SEIU
to providing them a work
environment and procedures
that meet or exceed industry
standards,” Eulen America
CEO Xavier Rabell said. “We
take our full compliance
with New York City Worker
Protection & Workplace
Laws and all other applicable
regulations and laws very
seriously and we have always
been available to answer
any questions members of
Congress may have about our
workforce team and policies.”
Rabell added that despite
the Service Employees
International Union efforts to
drum up support, there has not
been sufficient interest among
their workers to petition for
a vote.
“We do not object at all
if our employees wish to
unionize,” Rabell said. “No
one needs to mislead the public
about our company in order to
choose the right to collective
bargaining. What we do object
to is continued inaccurate
and unfair characterizations
about us and how we treat our
team members.”
The new president of 32BJ
SEIU Kyle Bragg, who took
over the powerful service
workers union after Héctor
Figueroa died of a heart attack
in July, thanked New York’s
Congressional delegation for
standing up for the Eulen
America subcontracted
airport workers.
Read more at QNS.com.
Reach reporter Bill
Parry by email at bparry@
schnepsmedia.com or by phone
at (718) 260–4538.
Donor map shows Dems in Queens have Bernie fever
BY MAX PARROTT
A recent interactive map
published by The New York
Times shows that, with the
exception of a tiny sliver of
Little Neck supporting Joe
Biden, Bernie Sanders has the
highest density of individual
donors across the borough out
any of the 2020 Democratic
presidential candidates.
The map is based in
partly fundraising records
from ActBlue, an online
fundraising platform that
takes in donations for
Democratic candidates.
The number of Sanders
donors was especially dense in
Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle
Village, Elmhurst, Rego Park,
Briarwood, Jamaica Hills and
Howard Beach.
Sanders’s fundraising has
steadily raked in contributions
from small donors after
kicking off his presidential
bid with a massive lead in
low-level contributors. In
the U.S. overall, Sanders has
746,000 individual donors,
with Elizabeth Warren
coming in second with 421,000
and Buttigieg, Harris and
Biden coming after her in
that order.
Sanders is leading his
rivals in total money raised,
but not by a huge margin
— his $36 million total
only $4 million above Pete
Buttigieg’s total.
While Sanders consistently
has the most donors across the
Queens map, the candidate
with the second-highest donor
level changes per geographic
region. The margins for
Bernie are generally a little
slimmer as your get to the
outer borders of the borough.
Throughout the northwest
in Long Island City and
Astoria, where Sanders
received a slimmer margin of
Bernie Sanders Photo by John McCarten
donors than the southern part
of the borough, Buttigieg and
Warren received the second
largest amount of donors.
As you get up into the
northeast in the Flushing,
Murray Hill and College
Point area, Andrew Yang
consistently wins the second
most donors.
And traveling down
into the far southeast of
the borough in St. Albans,
Laurelton and Cambria
Heights, Biden gets the
second highest number.
Reach reporter Max
Parrott by email at mparrott@
schnepsmedia.com or by
phone at (718) 260-2507.
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