DOJ: Criminal charges apply to assaulting airport workers

Airline and airport workers cheered Friday that criminal charges will be possible if they suffer physical or verbal abuse from a passenger.

The confirmation was a long time coming, dealing with legislation approved in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001.

The aviation-security law that Congress approved in November 2001 set criminal fines and up to 10 years in prison for anyone who assaults “a federal, airport, or air carrier employee who has security duties within the airport, interferes with the performance of the duties of the employee or lessens the ability of the employee to perform those duties.”

But the departments interpreted that language to apply to only Transportation Security Administration or law-enforcement officers.

Communications Workers of America, a union representing thousands of aviation workers, fought for 15 years to have the law cover airline and airport workers. Travelers regularly become angry in airports, sometimes throwing luggage at ticket agents or punching them, according to the union.

Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., headed a congressional letter in September to the Transportation and Justice departments asking for a broader interpretation of who is protected by the law.

The departments have now agreed, according to Peter Kadzik, an assistant attorney general in the office of legislative affairs.

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“We agree that this statute includes, but its very language, assaults on an ‘airport, or air carrier employee who has security duties within the airport,’” Kadzik wrote Garamendi on Jan. 5. “As such, we also agree that the statutory language considers not only TSA and law enforcement officers in this criminal offense, but also airport and air carrier employees who have security duties in the airport.”

Federal prosecutors decide which charges to file based on the evidence, Kadzik wrote. Local authorities could also investigate, he wrote.

Workers welcomed the new interpretation of the law.

“Now no one will have to be exposed to violence in our nation’s airports,” said Tom Robertson, an Envoy agent from Joplin, Mo. Envoy is a regional affiliate of American Airlines.

Takisha Washington Gower, an Envoy agent from Dallas-Fort Worth, said the decision “is proof that our voices were heard and now agents feel safer on the job, knowing they are protected.”

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