The Rhode Island Airport Corporation has retained attorney Marc DeSisto on an hourly rate to track down and bring legal action against those responsible for sending anonymous letters to the news media, elected officials, the airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration threatening to close Rhode Island TF Green International Airport because of a toxic work environment attributed to RIAC President and CEO Iftikhar Ahmad.

The first of the letters, received by the Beacon in June, cited more than 50 senior and management staff had been fired or resigned in the eight years Ahmad has been at the airport and said unless the RIAC board replaced Ahmad, workers would walk off their jobs on Aug. 13 effectively closing the airport. Two additional anonymous letters were mailed to the Warwick Beacon naming individuals who had lost their jobs and repeating claims of a potential walk off.

The Beacon shared the letters with RIAC officials and sought comment.

The Beacon also contacted many of those named in letters who at one time worked at RIAC. Some former employees related situations in which they had been berated in front of their peers by Ahmad and told not to speak to employees beneath their rank. Most described what they called a toxic work environment, but only a few consented to go on the record and have their names used in an article “Airport executives axed, take flight” published by the Beacon Aug. 1.

The article quoted a letter from Yilmaz Surehan, then the airport’s vice president of property and business development, who wrote in his November 2022 resignation letter to Ahmad, “I can no longer accept working in the hostile work environment you have established here. I have been witness to numerous occasions of you publicly belittling, harassing, and humiliating my co-workers – often on a daily basis,” he continued before adding, “To do nothing would make me an accomplice, which is why I must resign in protest.”

Ahmad said that Surehan persistently interrupted another RIAC executive of Asian descent during staff meetings which was unacceptable.

At a press conference Tuesday in Ahmad’s third floor corner office overlooking the airfield, Ahmad defended the termination of employees showing a video of a transgender passenger who was going through security clearance and how a TSA employee kept calling her a him and how RIAC employees present backed up the TSA official. Ahmad didn’t confirm the RIAC employees were fired but said they are no longer working at the airport.

Much of the 90 minute press conference was directed at the union with Ahmad implying more than once that the union was behind the anonymous letters to gain “leverage” for higher wages. [The union contract expired on June 30 and about two weeks ago with 106 members of the 110 member Local 2873 voting rejected the RIAC offer of a 9% raise over three years by a vote of 105 to one. Union leaders said language that would have allowed management to change job definitions was at fault. On Tuesday, however, Ahmad said the union was seeking language that would eliminate job evaluations.]

At the press conference two pages of a 27-page packet given to the media cited 22 cases where senior management had to deal with union employees including an instance where an employee claimed an off duty injury occurred on the job; a union leader and officer at the Fire Station discouraged would-be employees from taking jobs at the fire station while seeking a promotion and a manager fabricated reports while doing drugs at work and a union employee “brandished two guns in a vehicle with a female coworker.”

Ahmad pointed to a stack of binders on a table, saying the media was welcome to review personnel termination papers, adding he would waive restrictions in non-disclosure agreements.

To give what he called “context” to the potential damage of the letters and the media coverage it has been given, Ahmad traced the growth of Green compared to Boston, Bradley and Manchester from June 2023 to June 2024, concluding it is the fastest growing airport in New England. He called the letters and the coverage it has been given “tortious interference” that is costing the airport thousands of dollars and harming operations. In particular he said FAA questioned what was happening and as a precaution RIAC took action to ensure fire station operations should workers walk off. At a cost of $73,041.63, RIAC retained Rural Metro Fire Services to be on standby Aug. 13.

He charged, but didn’t name, “some union officials and some disgruntled employees” with creating a toxic environment, adding “we have to take some action.” Pressed for information as to who might be behind the letters, Ahmad said he had ideas but would not share them.

Reached after the press conference, Steven Parent, president of Local 2873 of RI Council 94 AFSCME, said, “I hope they’re successful in coming up with who it is.” A lieutenant in the RIAC Fire Department with 11 years at the airport, Parent said there was no plan to walk off the job and had they done so, “they could have fired us.” While he had long scheduled to take Aug. 13 off, Parent said he “cancelled it” and showed up for work to give management “a level of comfort.”

“We’ve had no involvement in any of that [the letters],” Parent said of the union.

Asked why RIAC hadn’t responded to inquiries relating to allegations made by former employees in the Beacon’s investigation, Ahmad said they don’t respond to anonymous letters. Ahmad added he does not regret not responding sooner in this situation despite claims it had affected relations with the airlines and the FAA. He said the first letter goes back to 2022.

 He said this would be both an internal and external investigation.      

“It needs an investigation as to who these people are so we can take the steps to protect the interest of the public agency. We have to ensure that our investigation can get some subpoenas issued and that depositions can take place so we can know who’s behind it and go to court. And use the court system like anyone can,” he said.

Ahmad said when he came aboard he was told Green was “like a country club” and he needed to change that. “Continuous improvement cannot take place without making changes. And some people are not OK with that change,” he said.

Michael Zarum who has long followed developments at the airport, often attends RIAC board meetings and speaks on airport related issues at City Council meetings, said Ahmad “shouldn’t be threatening his workers through the media…it appears Iftikhar is interfering with their right to speak.”

He said Ahmad “doesn’t understand employer and employee relations in the United States. It’s one thing to create jobs and another for them [employees] to be treated with respect.”

Citing the pandemic, Parent acknowledged the airport has faced challenges and it is taking time to rebound. But he also pointed out that vast amounts of federal funds have been poured into airports and that Rhode Island has gotten more than its share.

“If we didn’t have [Senator] Jack Reed to bring the money in he [Ahmad] wouldn’t be the hero he is,” Parent said. Parent said a date hasn’t been set for the resumption of contract talks.