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Hundreds of employees at Big Apple airports are in constant fear for their lives due to disastrously unsafe working conditions, according to a bombshell complaint.
Fed-up Alliance Ground International workers rallied outside John F. Kennedy Airport Friday to share horror stories about their time at the runway and tarmac service company they claim has little regard for its staff.
“Every single day I come to work, wondering if I’m going to make it home safe at the end of my shift. A lot of the equipment we use is old, broken down, and honestly unsafe,” said John Mosquera, who has worked as an AGI ramp agent with Frontier Airlines at LGA for nearly two years.
Mosquera, of the Bronx, told the crowd he passed out on the job during last summer’s record heat wave after he was forced to load bags into the unairconditioned belly of a plane.
“Nobody should have to risk their health or their life just to earn a small paycheck. We all deserve to work with dignity and to make it home to our family … No bag, no flight and no company is worth our lives.”
The rally comes one week after SEIU Local 32BJ filed two formal “bombshell” complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on behalf of 21 different AGI workers across JFK and LGA.
The workers, who are not part of a union, lodged a litany of allegations against AGI, including malfunctioning brakes, prevalent injuries, vehicles in disrepair, unsafe working conditions, no mirrors on vehicles, lack of training and more.
At JFK in particular, workers are routinely exposed to fall hazards as high as 30 feet without any fall protection, the complaints allege.
At LGA, the employees are allegedly forced to share protective gear and face shields that are rarely cleaned and are used for employing airplane lavatory tanks.
“AGI does not care about workers; they care about money. This winter was long and brutal. My coworkers and I spent hours outside working in freezing temperatures. It didn’t matter if we were cold, tired, sick or exhausted. We still had to show up and do the job because we have families depending on us,” said Shadequia Mercer, who worked for AGI on the ramp and in the baggage room at LaGuardia with Spirit Airlines for two years before she was laid off last week.
Mercer claimed that AGI had little compassion for its workers when Spirit shut down, saying many are still left waiting for their paychecks.
“Workers are still fighting to get the pay time off that we already earned … people with families, bills, children, health issues, and responsibilities, people who deserve to be treated like human beings,” she said.
The complaints come just weeks after the AGI was named to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) “Dirty Dozen” list of companies with significant workplace safety concerns.
AGI landed on the list because of broken machines, because of injuries, because of dirty PPI, because of workers not getting trained but also because of extreme heat hazard, according to Charlene Obernauer, the Executive Director of the New York Committee for Occupational and Safety Health.
In April 2026, AGI was named to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health “Dirty Dozen” list of companies with significant workplace safety concerns.
The company is still under a National Labor Relations Board investigation following a complaint by Garvey Barrett, a baggage handler with AGI at LGA, who said he was suspended for asking for water during one of the hottest days of 2025.
“We are today because JFK and LaGuardia workers at AGI are literally fighting for the protection of their lives,” said Manny Pastreich, the president of SEIU Local 32BJ.
“This is definitely going to be a wake-up call at AGI because workplace safety is a priority. Today is a major milestone because these bombshell allegations are going to be investigated.”
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