By Katia Hetter
June 26, 2001
An Elmont man who worked his way up over a decade from dishwasher to a dishroom supervisor at a Kennedy Airport caterer charges in a federal lawsuit that his employer fired him last year after a company investigator allegedly called him racist names repeatedly.
Julian Ishmael said Flying Food Group Inc. hired an undercover investigator last summer to check on reports of missing supplies on the night shift. He alleged in the suit that the investigator, who posed as a porter, called him a “black dog” and said, “Remember when we used to burn and hang --- ?”
On Ishmael’s birthday, Ishmael said, the investigator used the racial epithet again. Ishmael said he spoke with two supervisors about the incidents. Ishmael said the company did not respond to his complaints.
While thousands of workers file complaints every year claiming discrimination, Ishmael may have a rare smoking gun: a white supervisor backs up his claims.
Flying Food officials at the company’s Chicago headquarters, the company’s Jamaica office, the company’s outside lawyer, Amy Zdravezky of the law firm Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg in Chicago, and at Winfield Security Corp. in Manhattan, the employer of the undercover investigator, did not return calls seeking comment.
However, in written responses to Ishmael’s Oct. 3 complaint to the State Human Rights Commission, the company denied discriminating against Ishmael.
In the brief filed with the state, Zdravezky wrote that Ishmael was fired, “only after he was counseled on numerous occasions regarding his unsatisfactory performance and after he failed to improve his performance despite numerous opportunities to do so.” The company claimed Ishmael was frequently missing during his shift and that he often left the dishroom in an untidy condition.
The undercover investigator, a Latino, allegedly made his “burn and hang” comments to Ishmael in the office of night operations supervisor Marty Trout, while Trout was there. Trout, a 15-year Flying Food veteran, said in a recent interview that the comments “shocked me.”
While noting that Trout’s report was troubling, the lawyer said the managers who fired Ishmael didn’t know about the racist remarks. In a recent telephone interview, however, supervisor Jaime Guzman confirmed that Ishmael told him about the racist remarks before he was fired.
Flying Food is one of a handful of caterers supplying the airline industry at Kennedy Airport and other airports around the country. It lists Air France, Air India, Alitalia, El Al Airlines and Royal Jordanian Airlines among its customers.
Ishmael said he worked at Flying Foods and its predecessors for 12 of the past 16 years, working his way up to night dishroom supervisor. He provided a copy of a 1999 commendation by then-human resources manager Matty Singh stating that Singh considered Ishmael “to be an excellent employee. He is dedicated, responsible and hard working.” A company telephone operator said Singh was no longer with the company.
Ishmael said his troubles may have started when his employer discovered in June 2000 that liquor was being stolen. The company confirms the thefts in its legal brief. Ishmael said another employee was eventually fired for the thefts.
At the same time, Ishmael said, company officials were nervous about a unionization vote by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union's Local 1102.
Workers voted for Local 1102 in July, and a union official said the company recently signed a contract with higher wages and benefits. As a manager, Ishmael would not have qualified for union membership.
Ishmael and Trout said they both told their supervisors that the investigator failed to perform his stated duties as a porter. Ishmael said that's when the man began to make racist comments.
Besides Trout, another employee confirmed that he heard the investigator call Ishmael a “black dog” and talk about how the Ku Klux Klan used to kill blacks. The man, who still works at Flying Food, did not want to be named.
The Jamaica facility’s general manager called Ishmael into his office Aug. 3, complaining that Ishmael regularly left the building during working hours, according to Ishmael, who denied the charges. That’s when the manager told him about the investigation for the first time and complained about Ishmael’s work. Ishmael said this was the first time he had heard about problems with his work; company officials had said in the legal brief that they had counseled him several times.
Ishmael said he mentioned the racist remarks and offered Trout as a witness. He said the manager suspended him for a week but promised to investigate. Ishmael said he was fired Aug. 10.
Previously paid $13 per hour plus benefits, he now said he makes $7 per hour with no benefits packing boxes in a warehouse. He has a fiance and two children.
Even though he regularly supervised Ishmael, Trout said he was never questioned about Ishmael's performance by officials before the firing. When Trout had to leave the building, he said, he often left Ishmael in charge.
“He was an excellent employee, and anytime I needed him to do something, he did it,” Trout said. “The company didn't have a reason to fire him, in my eyes.”