Miami-Dade fires an MIA elevator contractor. Was it for safety or to reward a union?

Two years after county inspectors warned of safety “negligence” in elevators at Miami International Airport, the administration of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava fired the company responsible for their maintenance.

Oracle Elevator Co. said it is being fired two years after a one-time lapse as a political favor for the International Union of Elevator Constructors. The union donated $10,000 to Levine Cava’s Our Democracy political committee last summer and has been waging a campaign to oust Oracle from MIA.

The union represents the workers of the company that started Friday as the temporary replacement, Schindler Elevator Corp., and a union-controlled fund is paying Schindler an undisclosed amount of money to reduce the company’s costs on the new MIA contract.

Oracle suing Miami-Dade over MIA ouster

The dispute has wound up in court, with Oracle suing Miami-Dade over the contract cancellation that took effect Friday.

“We believe the termination is politically motivated because Oracle is a merit-based company and the County desires to award the contract to a union employer, Schindler Elevator,” Oracle Elevator CEO Tim Shea said in a statement. He used “merit-based” to describe Oracle’s MIA workers as not members of a union.

Levine Cava’s administration said the dismissal is based solely on Oracle’s performance and “troubling” safety issues.

The “County has received reports of troubling safety concerns, failure to meet safety protocols, and failure to complete services,“ Ralph Cutié, Miami-Dade’s aviation director, said in a statement. “To eliminate any doubt for our employees, residents, and the traveling public, that our facilities are running safely and smoothly, we are exercising the County’s ‘no fault’ termination clause while we begin a competitive bid process evaluating both quality and cost to find the most qualified vendor to provide these important services.”

The dismissal followed a yearlong campaign against the company’s safety record by the International Union of Elevator Constructors. Union representatives passed out leaflets at MIA warning passengers about Oracle’s safety record and launched a website against the company.

“Oracle’s shameful safety record ultimately left the County with no choice but to cut ties and seek out a more responsible, dependable contractor,” union organizer Abel Arabitg said in a statement.

Oracle under scrutiny for bypassed wires

The allegations stem from a string of bypassed wires on elevators that alarmed county inspectors in 2020, but haven’t resurfaced since as an issue at the airport.

Known as “jumpers,” the bypasses let a mechanic disable safety features that would otherwise shut down an elevator or other moving equipment. They’re used as a diagnostic tool for narrowing down electrical problems during maintenance, but can leave an elevator or escalator unsafe to use if not removed after the repair, county administrators and inspectors said at a County Commission hearing on the matter in May 2021.

“Let me remind you and everyone at Oracle Elevator Co. that deliberately disabling a safety device or circuit is not only a violation of code but also against the law,” Deputy Inspector Allen Morris wrote in a May 8, 2020, email to Oracle, according to public records released by the union. “God forbid a riding passenger gets injured or killed because of this negligence.”

Oracle was operating under a 2018 county contract as one of several companies hired to repair the dozens of elevators, escalators and moving walkways at one of the country’s busiest airports. Schindler was already operating at MIA, and expanded its portfolio last week under the emergency contract approved by the Levine Cava administration to replace Oracle.

Miami-Dade hasn’t issued a final report on what happened with the Oracle elevators in 2020, with an Inspector General’s investigation announced last year still underway.

Union-controlled fund pays Schindler for MIA work

County dollars won’t be the only source of revenue for Schindler in the agreement. A fund governed by a union-appointed board has agreed to provide a grant to Schindler under the MIA deal, according to a statement from the Elevator Industry Work Preservation Fund.

The fund’s director, Allen Spears, declined to say how much Schindler was receiving in Miami-Dade.

Spears said the grants are used to make unionized work forces more competitive and “ensure that the safety of workers and the general public is never sacrificed during a high-stakes bidding process.”

This story was originally published June 13, 2022 at 6:05 PM.