Baggage theft conspiracy uncovered in Virginia

Two baggage handlers have pleaded guilty for their involvement in an ongoing plot to steal passengers’ possessions from their luggage in Virginia.

The pair in question, 25-year-old Chris Arthur Perry and 27-year-old Gregory Paul Wingard, were charged by a federal grand jury on October 7, 2015. On December 18, the Department of Justice announced that both men had pleaded guilty to stealing items for the period from December 2013 to June 2015 at Norfolk International airport.

According to the details of the case, the two men broke into checked baggage in order to take money, electronics and other items and sell them on to individuals or pawn shops. The pair reportedly targeted firearm containers while searching for bags to break into and both now face a maximum penalty of five years in prison when sentenced on March 14, 2016.

Fast for better conditions

As was covered in Ramp Equipment News recently, unrest in the US over wage levels continues to grab the headlines. Airport and ramp staff have been caught up in the general movement that seeks to set a minimum wage of US$15 an hour for what is often unskilled, manual labor. And with ramp workers taking home perhaps US$8 an hour, and with some having to hold down two jobs at a time to make ends meet, there is clearly a need for a reappraisal.

What hit the headlines in Seattle a couple of years back is now steadily filtering through the rest of the US. In order to draw attention to their plight cleaners, skycaps, baggage handlers, security officers and other ramp workers have been holding a 24 hour fast in the hours leading up to the country’s Thanksgiving Day. Across the country, contracted airport staff are coming together through Airport Workers Unite: in all, some 14 airports have been affected, as the staff show solidarity and try to spotlight their plight. And plight is perhaps not an ill-chosen word in this context.

According to a study carried out by the University of California Berkley Labor Center, some 37% of cleaning staff and baggage workers live on or close to the poverty line; and a survey of 500 subcontracted passenger services workers at John F Kennedy International, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International airports conducted last year by the Economic Policy Institute revealed that 50% of airport employees in the region were reliant on some form of public assistance to survive. Moreover, 20% of staff admitted that they had missed a meal within the past week because of financial reasons.

Whilst there is plenty of support in high places for these underprivileged sections of the workforce, any sort of concrete proposals seem to be a way off yet.