'They could shut down the airport': Park ATL employees go unpaid

I want to start with a story that our Angelique Proctor has been following, and it involves some airport employees, Angelique, I understand, saying that they are not being paid in a timely manner. What can you share with us? Well, good afternoon to you, Ariel. We are here at Hartsville-Jackson International Airport, where these 500 Park ATL employees work. Many of them work the parking garages, they drive the shuttle buses that you see if you have a problem, if your tire is flat. They drive the courtesy buses to come and help you if people are wondering who we are talking about. They say they are employees who need some help with this parking issue right now. They actually got in touch with their union, and the union representatives went before the Atlanta City Council on Monday to start talking about these payment issues. What they're saying is that their paychecks are not right, their paychecks don't come on time, their paychecks don't include insurance premiums that they should include, their paychecks don't have their union dues paid. And so all of these problems that they say have been going on for about three years. Take a listen to the union reps as they explained all of this on Monday. You do not get back and forth from your car to your terminal without touching those folks. If they wanted to, they could shut down the airport. That is not an exaggeration. Gina Pagnotta is the vice president of our national union. She asked us, because of her relationship with you guys, to come here and talk to you guys first before we shut down the airport. So we're here by her request. So you're lucky, I'm just going to say that right now, you're lucky she has faith in all of you. This is what we are asking for. These folks constantly do not have adequate, they don't have accurate paychecks or have paychecks that are on time. When tax season came around, many of them did not have W-2s or they were given handwritten W-2s. People are not getting access to paycheck stubs. How many people have lost housing, been denied loans or whatever because they did not have paycheck stubs? Okay? People's insurance premiums are not being paid, even though they're paying the money, it's coming out of their paycheck stubs. They've gotten letters from insurance companies telling them that their premiums were not paid and therefore their insurance has been canceled. One of them, if not both of them, got a $7.2 million check June of this year. And they also got two checks in a matter of $457 in May of this year. Where's that money? These employees not getting it. They never get their checks on time. As you can see on the paychecks, page 31, I've attached in the collective bargaining agreement with NAGE and also the paycheck stubs, page 21 and 22, and withholding of the union dues, page 23, that you have the opportunity to purview. Now, you're probably wondering why the city got something to do with this. Well, the city signed this contract and a third party of the people that these men and women are working at your airport. They are the drivers, the shuttles. They help you out in doing World Cup. You want this and you want it clean. You want it to do what it's supposed to do. But I tell you now, and you all know my spirit and my passion. If these employees were from the city of Atlanta and they were under pace directly and they did not get paid, you would not get no service. I can guarantee you that. So as you can hear some very serious accusations about these payroll problems. Now, the union says the city of Atlanta has done its part by paying this vendor. The vendor is Vector Transportation and they've actually paid the millions of dollars. But apparently the vendor has not gotten that money into these employees hands, particularly in a timely fashion. And that is the rub there. So they are not city employees because the city has contracted this work out to this contractor. Now we reached out to Vector Transportation today, got no response. We also reached out to many Atlanta City Council members. They said they hear these complaints loudly and clearly and that they are definitely researching them, reaching out to the airport, trying to figure out what is wrong here. Why is this happening and how they can correct it. So we are busy following all of this and we understand there is a transportation meeting. The transportation committee will meet next Wednesday and this issue is expected to come up then. But lots of people who work here at the say they are not being paid properly and they say this has been a long-standing problem, not just for a couple of months, but they are saying at least for the last three years, as long as Vector Transportation has had this contract. Angelique, heated words. And I can imagine if I wasn't getting paid what I was told I would be, I might feel similarly. And it's an interesting point that they were talking about how the backbone of the airport operations relies on the people to get people to and from the airport, the workers, the travelers, everybody else. So I understand there's a transportation meeting. I understand that this is definitely on the city's radar and they're going to be looking into it. Curious how, what their response might be as they take a look at this situation. And of course, given that it's a third party, what kind of recourse do they even have? Well, what these union representatives say the city could do is basically fire this vendor, this contractor, and hire someone who is more sensitive to the payroll needs and getting things done in a timely fashion. And so they ask at Monday's council meeting, if there is a problem and there certainly appears to be in their opinion with this vendor, let's go ahead and fire the vendor. So we will continue to watch this. Of course, it's very complex issue, lots of moving parts, lots of different players. It's not something that can be done just overnight, but we will continue to follow this. And definitely by next Wednesday's transportation meeting, we should be getting a more substantial response from the city about this. Anjali, thanks so much for the update, keeping us informed on what to expect. I'll let you get back to information gathering and we'll see you again this evening.