Thursday, October 09, 2014

Ebola Fears Drive LaGuardia’s Airplane Cleaners to Strike
LaGuardia airport workers strike over unsafe conditions.
By Jim Snyder October 09, 2014

Airplane-cabin cleaners for a Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL:US) contractor at New York’s LaGuardia Airport went on strike partly because of concern about the risk of Ebola.

About 200 people walked off their jobs at 9:30 p.m. yesterday, said Amity Paye, a spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union, which represents the workers. The strike involves cabin cleaners in LaGuardia’s Terminal D, which handles Delta flights.

The employees said working conditions in general are unsafe, citing freezing temperatures and sweltering heat. The concern has recently turned to the Ebola virus, and not having been properly trained to reduce the risks, according to Paye.

“The workers are really worried because they tend to be exposed to bodily fluids,” including by cleaning out bathrooms on airplanes, Paye said.

Two workers were sent to a hospital last week after being pricked with hypodermic needles while cleaning, Paye said.

SEIU Local 32BJ plans to hold a training session for cabin cleaners and other workers today to discuss safety procedures.

The current outbreak of Ebola has killed more than 3,800 people in West Africa. While there has been only one case of someone being diagnosed with the disease in the U.S., the government has begun screening travelers arriving from three of the African nations hardest hit by the viral outbreak.

Only two U.S. carriers, United Airlines (UAL:US) and Delta, offer Africa nonstop service, and neither flies to any of the nations in the Ebola-outbreak zone.

The U.S. government this weekend will begin checking the temperatures and health histories of passengers who began their travel in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, and will expand next week to Washington Dulles, Newark Liberty, Chicago O’Hare and Atlanta Hartsfield.

Those airports account for 94 percent of the passengers from the three nations.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Snyder in Washington at jsnyder24@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net Romaine Bostick, Steve Geimann

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