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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

PDX Not Exactly "Holly Jolly" Behind the Scenes

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Monday, November 24, 2014   

PORTLAND, Ore. - This week kicks off the busy holiday travel season, and at Portland International Airport (PDX), hundreds of behind-the-scenes workers shift into high gear to accommodate the crowds. Those who work for the airline subcontractors say it isn't easy when their employers don't always provide the tools they need to do their jobs.

Matthew Johnson says during holiday weeks, the number of planes at least doubles on his shifts as a fueler with contractor Aircraft Service International Group (ASIG). He says his concerns are safety-related, with an aging fleet of fuel trucks and leaky hoses used to fuel the planes.

"We have a slow drip we have to cover up with special fuel pads that absorb jet fuel," Johnson says. "We have to deal with the smell and the caustic chemicals throughout the day by changing out pads, so we're exposed to jet fuel."

ASIG says it is an industry leader in fueling services at more than 50 airports worldwide.

Johnson says he writes up the same vehicles for the same issues multiple times, and they're only repaired when they become enough of a problem to delay a flight. In a survey of workers at PDX this fall, 41 percent reported exposure to hazardous materials, including jet fuel.

In the same survey, by SEIU Local 49, two-thirds reported using equipment that was "insufficient or in poor condition."

This will be the first holiday season on the job for cabin cleaner Brooke Reed. She works for Prospect Airport Services and says it's hard to get the planes clean enough on quick turnarounds with what she describes as second-rate equipment and supplies.

"We definitely don't get the proper supplies we need," Reed says. "A lot of them break, because they're the cheapest ones we can get. The biggest problems are probably mops and vacuums; right now, we have three vacuums but we only have one hose."

Reed says cabin cleaners make minimum wage, a little more for lavatory duty. For many of her coworkers with families, she says the holidays will mean volunteering for extra work to get overtime pay.

According to AAA, air travel this week is expected to be at its highest level since 2007.



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