QUEENS, NY – Last November, a black immigrant skycap worker at LaGuardia Airport was assaulted and arrested on the job. A week later, when he returned to retrieve his paycheck, he was fired.

The skycap was performing his normal functions, helping passengers with their bags to and from their vehicles. After waiting for about ten minutes with a family of passengers in the taxi line the skycap was asked to call a private car service. When the private car arrived the skycap went to identify it, but before he could return to the family he was thrown against an airport bus. “You’re going to jail!” screamed a man.

Bystanders said it appeared the skycap was being jumped, because the cops were wearing plain clothes. The police claimed the skycap had violated airport policy by hailing a private (black) cab off the street. When he showed them his phone, which proved he had called the car service, the cops confiscated it and took him away. After initially mixing up the charges, the skycap was charged with soliciting, and resisting arrest.

In the months that followed, the fired worker went to preliminary hearings regarding his case along with a few PLP members and friends. He agreed that it was important to fight this case and that it reflected a larger attack on all workers. Despite numerous attempts to force the skycap to settle, he refused to do so. “Why should I settle, when I didn’t do anything wrong?” he argued.

While he is fighting this racist arrest, the state and skycap bosses have launched another attack on him. After filing for unemployment and receiving two checks, the worker was cut off and told he would have to pay back the $800 he had received. His employer had contested the claim, saying that he was ineligible since he had violated company policy and was terminated, not laid off. This sort of attack is happening to industrial workers everywhere who are fired for minor offenses so that bosses can avoid contributing to the growing unemployment rolls.

Meanwhile, the fight against the bogus criminal charges continues. The judge refused to dismiss the absurd case of being arrested for calling a cab, even though there is no evidence against the worker besides the lies of the cops. This should come as no surprise since under capitalism the courts work hand-in-hand with the police to defend the bosses’ interests.  Now the case will go to trial, and if convicted the worker could face as much as a year in jail. PLP is planning to pack the court with supporters for the trial in April and support our friend who is under attack.