Attorney: Maintenance manager created a 'climate of fear' at Hopkins

Add Us On GoogleAdd as a preferred source on Google

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - Cleveland law firm says secretly recorded audio reveals Cleveland Hopkins International Airport airfield-maintenance manager Robert Henderson on Jan. 19, 2017 criticized his employees and threatened them with retaliation for whistleblowing safety violations.

Henderson made the threats one day after attorneys for Chandra Law sent to the Federal Aviation Administration and Occupational Safety and Health Administration, on behalf of former airfield-maintenance manager Abdul-Malik Ali, a complaint regarding additional safety violations. Those threats reportedly resulted in a "climate of fear" at Hopkins, according to the firm.

FAA whistleblower writes mayor voicing Hopkins concerns

Chandra Law sent an additional complaint and the audio recording to the FAA and OSHA Tuesday, Jan. 24.

Complaint claims conditions at Cleveland Hopkins pose threat to travelers

The recording captures Henderson saying the following:

If anybody is caught associating with anything like that, the penalties will be great. So I'm calling y'all together now. Let's go ahead and put it out there; let's talk about it right now. So we can get it out of the way. Because if anyone is caught sitting there having a sideline conversations about this, or with [unintelligible] did to somebody else, or let me send it to this friend or let me me do that, that could connect you with something that's, that's frowned upon in the organization-to take internal stuff and leak it out to the media. So please don't engage in, in all that. I'm putting it out right here, right now. It ain't nothing to whisper about. Ain't nothing [unintelligible]. Nothin' going to happen.

For the complete audio LISTEN HERE.

Download the Cleveland 19 News app and First Alert Weather app.