I-Team: Company previously fined for harassment

CRANSTON, R.I. - An aviation fuel service company involved in a noose incident at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick was fined nearly $2 million for harassment of black and Hispanic workers at another airport last year, the I-Team reported Wednesday.

John Valles, who is black, told the I-Team that a colleague found a noose hanging over his desk on Feb. 15, when Valles was on vacation. Valles works for Allied Aviation at T.F. Green Airport.

Allied officials said three people were fired over the incident.

Allied was fined in 2008 for similar harassment of workers at the company’s facility at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, according to the I-Team.

“Workers were subjected to racial graffiti, including swastikas and hangman’s nooses,“ according to a statement by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Valles told the I-Team that he was shocked to hear the news about the Dallas airport.

“It looks like nothing was done then, and that there’s still nothing done now,” Valles said.

Valles said he and his co-workers were never given detailed training about racial harassment prevention, until after a I-Team story showed the noose hanging above the desk Valles uses.

“Basically when we started the job, we had paper work that went over discrimination briefly,“ he said. “We had to sign it, but we never had something like a video or any type of training.“

A representative for Allied said, “Since the fine, we have instituted a rigorous training program for all of our managers about discrimination in the workplace. We don’t tolerate this baloney at all.“

Valles said he’s been contacted by the EEOC in Boston and the Rhode Island Human Rights Commission.

Rhode Island Airport Police are conducting an investigation.