Switching Gears
When terrorists attacked the country, they propelled members into a different type of public service.
By Jimmie Turner
Sept. 11, 2001: The physical destruction was limited to the World Trade Center and nearby buildings, the Pentagon and a patch of land in Pennsylvania. But the broader impact is still being felt all across the nation.
For Americans, that means living, working and playing with caution and vigilance. For AFSCME members at military bases and major airports, it means in the first instance being uprooted from home and work, and in the second being given new — and sometimes tedious — duties.
Unexpected change
Sept. 11 nearly cost one member her job at Denver International Airport. Before the attacks, Detrick Sadaa, a "guest services" employee, had been placed on administrative leave. She had become unhappy with some managers because she felt they discriminated by assigning her to information booths in concourses with little traffic.
Sadaa, a member of Local 158 (Council 76) who's been working in Denver airports for 10 years, is blind. But she knows from experience that she can ably assist passengers in high-traffic areas — and "I'd rather be where the action is. They [managers] say that I have to prove to them that I know the airport. They did not have the right to push me aside and say, 'We'll get back to you.' I might be blind but I ain't stupid."
When less-experienced guest services workers were given the assignments she longed for, Sadaa filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before being placed on leave. According to a staff representative from Council 76, she knows that airport "better than a sighted person."
Union steps in
Things got worse. When airports reopened after Sept. 11, Sadaa was notified that she no longer had a job. Since guest services employees were pulled from information booths to help improve security at Denver International, airport management said Sadaa's disability prevented her from doing that work.
Union officials recognized that the conditions of her employment violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, so they took the case to an ADA representative from Denver. The result: Sadaa returned to work in January — assigned to an information booth in the airport's main terminal, assisting hundreds of passengers a day. Her computer has been upgraded with software that talks to her.
"Now I'm where the action is," she says with satisfaction. "Without the union, management would have had me under a rock; I would have gotten fired. We have excellent reps in Council 76, and they did an outstanding job of protecting my rights and my job."
New vibes
Sadaa's senses tell her that things have changed substantially at Denver International. "The minute you walk in the airport, you can feel it. You can't smell the food, people aren't talking, and you can feel the tension from passengers who are trying to figure out where the end of the line is" to get to the gates.
She says the volume of passengers has decreased dramatically since Sept. 11. "The airport used to be a busy place. The concession stands that serve food are now opening up later. To enter or exit the airport you need ID. Everybody is tighter than a drum; it's not like the mall atmosphere it used to be."
Limited access
About 15 miles from Reno, Nev., sits the U.S. Army's Aviation Support Facility, which operates a small fleet of helicopters and light planes. Just like some other Army bases, anyone could enter; the gates were open and unstaffed. "We never had security of any kind," says Tom Tuttle, a custodian on the installation.
Not any longer. Tuttle, a member of the State of Nevada Employees Association/AFSCME Local 4041, says that concrete barriers have blocked access to the base since the attacks. "They've got the barriers situated on the road so that you have to zigzag back and forth to get to the gate, and there's two sentries armed with M-16s, 24 hours a day. If you don't have an ID card — it doesn't make any difference if they know you or not — they're not going to let you through."
Tuttle estimates that 100 people are assigned to the base, which is modest in size compared to other military posts. The base population is so small that the Army had to call in reservists (see Page 30) to provide security. Commenting on the heightened security, Tuttle observes: "We're out here in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by acres of sagebrush, no high-tech equipment. There's nothing that a terrorist would waste a stick of dynamite on."
Costs of terrorism
Tuttle says that Sept. 11 has had a profound effect on Reno's economy. Flight suspensions forced cancellation of the annual National Championship Air Races and Air Show, which sponsors say brings millions of dollars to the region. The show was scheduled to run from Sept. 13 to 16.
"Everything was set up for it," Tuttle notes. RV parks, hotels and tickets to the event were all sold out; casinos and restaurants were ready to handle thousands of customers; and a number of planes had already arrived in Reno. "Restrictions on flying kept others from getting here, and the ones that were here couldn't leave because of the restrictions. A lot of people lost a lot of money."
True grit
The outpouring of patriotism since the attack on America put off Tuttle, an ex-Marine who fought in the Vietnam War. "To me, it's rather pathetic that it took a tragedy like that to make people patriotic. Why weren't people that way the day before, ready to stand up and say, 'Hey, I'm an American'? Why does it take planes flying into buildings to make people wake up?
"I've been a flag waver from way back."
He draws comparisons between today's war on terrorism and Vietnam, and he's proud to have fought there. "Vietnam was a very unpopular war, and I think people in the military were looked down upon. We were classified as low-life baby killers.
"Now people in the military, even firefighters and police, are looked up to as heroes. I'm all for that."
