BY ROLLANDE GIRARD
MIAMI - On August 25, 58 employees at American Airlines
and Lufthansa Sky Chef caterers were arrested here on
charges of drug, hand grenade, and gun smuggling. Around
the country news headlines claimed that a smuggling ring
had been busted and that the main reason for its existence
was the lack of security at the Miami International
Airport.
The next day, the Miami Herald made clear that what really happened was that the federal authorities organized a two-and-a-half-year operation to entrap airline workers. The Drug Enforcement Agency [DEA] spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up "Operation Ramp Rat and Sky Chef." They manufactured 283 kilograms of sham cocaine in the operation.
The agents also claim they were able to get three hand grenades and one handgun onto the planes by paying $7,000 to American Airlines ramp employees. They say that the weapons were taken off the plane before departure.
The big-business press and government have used these arrests to call for greater security measures at the airport and to attack the rights of airline workers.
With complete disregard for the presumption of innocence, the August 26 Miami Herald editorial aimed its fire on the airlines employees who "use their jobs at the Miami International Airport by evading security to smuggle everything from cocaine to guns." It continued that the 58 persons arrested used subterfuges to smuggle, but "none required a degree in rocket science, just a little cunning abetted by watchdogs' haphazard methods."
The Herald then directed its attack at the airline unions. The alleged smugglers "got a lot of help from the unions which fought successfully to prevent guards from checking employees' backpacks. So into the packs went the drugs and cash."
"Many people were outraged that the names and addresses of every person indicted were listed in the press," stated Rick Walker, a ramp worker at American Airlines in Miami. "The entrapment and arrests are being used to take away more of our democratic rights including union rights," he said.
Rollande Girard is a member of the International Association of Machinists Local 1126 in Miami.