Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Delta contractor laid off workers after bailout
A Delta Airlines contractor received more than $25 million from the federal government to help pay workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the business laid off about 100 of them anyway.
Eulen America employs between 160 and 170 workers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, including janitors, security guards, wheelchair attendees, customer service agents and airplane cabin cleaning crews. About 100 workers were laid off as a result of the pandemic, and about 90 remain unemployed.
Eulen, based in Spain, is registered in the U.S. as American Sales and Management Org. LLC. The company received $25,812,052 on May 29 from the U.S. Treasury’s Payroll Support Program, intended “to compensate aviation industry workers and preserve jobs,” according to the program’s website.
To qualify for payroll support, the employer’s business must have been fully or
partially suspended by government order due to COVID-19 during the calendar quarter, according to the Treasury Department. It does not, however, require companies rehire employees they laid off before receiving money from the program.
Representatives for Eulen did not respond Thursday to multiple requests by email and phone to explain why workers were laid off despite the government relief and why they were not recalled to work.
A Delta spokesman said the airline’s contract with Eulen has not changed.
About 30 workers stood outside Terminal 2 at the airport Thursday afternoon, demanding jobs, safer working conditions and personal protective equipment.
Instead of rehiring workers who had been employed by the company for years, Eulen has taken out ads, announcing job openings, seeking new employees, said Helene O’Brien, Florida Director for 32BJ Service Employees
International Union.
”They told workers to reapply for their jobs sometime in the future,” she said. “There are workers at home wanting to return to work.”
Rashad Grant, who worked as a wheelchair attendant, said Eulen “cut the lifeline of a paycheck for those of us who’ve barely survived without pay for months.”
Grant was laid off by Eulen in March 19 after working for them for 10 years. He was told he could reapply for his job, which he did. He was given an interview date, which he said was been canceled with no explanation.
”I’m just as lost as I was on March 19,” he said.
State Rep. Shevrin Jones, Florida House candidate Jasmen Rogers and members of the Dream Defenders and Black Lives Matter Alliance of Broward joined the former Eulen workers at the airport Thursday.
They say the refusal to rehire the workers is disproportionately harming Black and immigrant workers and their families. A Delta spokesman said the company expects its contractors to treat its workers the same way Delta treats its workers.
“When we say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ we mean in the workplace as well,” Jones said in a statement.
“Delta must do more than just talk,” he said. “They should replace Eulen with a contractor that respects their workers’ dignity and labor.”