Swissport workers at JFK sound alarm about workplace retaliation, 'hazardous' conditions

Kat Latimer did not expect that part of her job as a ramp agent at John F. Kennedy International Airport would be to unload 160-pound containers of sopping wet, bleeding fish leaking mysterious fluids out of passenger plane cargo holds. The position she held at Swissport calls for workers who can lift up to 70 pounds, but soon after Latimer started, she and her coworkers were tasked with unloading the fish pallets, that were often over 100 pounds.  

But one day in late April, Latimer and her coworkers briefly refused to unload the filthy fish pallets before a shop steward arrived, relying on a clause in their collective bargaining agreement that allows Swissport workers to refuse to work if it feels unsafe.