Disability Rights Advocates and Union Workers Launch Joint Campaign to Improve Access to Air Travel for Passengers who Use Wheelchairs

Coalition urges Department of Transportation to issue strong rules requiring airlines to improve airport service workers' training

October 31 - Disability rights and labor communities recently launched a joint campaign in support of accessibility, safety, dignity and respect for both passengers with disabilities and the airport service workers who support them.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) and the United Spinal Association joined forces to highlight the challenges facing passengers with disabilities, call out the airline industry's failure to meet their obligations under federal law, and urge Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to adopt the strongest possible requirements as submitted in comments to the DOT, in response to proposed rule-making, from the disability community and SEIU to improve training for airport service workers who support people with disabilities.

In our nation's airports, the safety and the dignity of passengers who use wheelchairs and the service workers who support them is intertwined. Airlines are required by law to ensure passengers with disabilities travel free of discrimination and that airline personnel provide dignified, timely, and effective assistance from workers who are trained in a manner that safeguards their safety and dignity, but they have not invested in ensuring the well-being of passengers and workers. Passengers with disabilities who use wheelchairs report facing numerous rights violations, including bodily injuries and damage to their assistive devices, and concerns regarding unsafe, inadequate, and undignified assistance, while wheelchair attendants often struggle to get by on low-wage, no-benefit jobs.

Passengers and workers both report that workers are not adequately trained, staffed or equipped for their critical work, a point that was underscored this month with a $50 million penalty levied against American Airlines by the Department of Transportation. In the contracting system, airline service providers compete to provide services for the lowest cost, which results in poverty-level wages and poor benefits which in turn results in high turnover for airport service workers, compounding the issues of training as skilled workers cannot afford to stay in their jobs.

DOT is now considering final rules that could help fix this broken system. SEIU, AAPD, NDRN and United Spinal have joined forces to urge Secretary Buttigieg to build on the landmark $50 million fine on American Airlines and issue a final rule Ensuring Safe Accommodations for Air Travelers With Disabilities Using Wheelchairs with the strongest possible training requirements as submitted in a comment by the disability community and SEIU in response to the proposed rulemaking, including:

• Enhanced competency-based training where airlines and their service providers must certify that their employees have demonstrated their ability to perform the work before they are allowed to engage a passenger who uses a wheelchair.
• Active, vigorous enforcement of airline compliance.
• A partnership between airlines and their service providers, disability rights groups, and the union representing service workers to develop and implement disability advocate-led training, drawing on the union's experience of delivering quality training to its members.

A virtual coalition launch call earlier in the month featured the voices of national leaders, workers, and passengers who use wheelchairs, each discussing the urgent need for federal action to protect the safety and dignity of passengers with disabilities and the workers who support them.

Vincenzo Piscopo, President/CEO of United Spinal Association, shared his first-person experience and the stakes for wheelchair users: "Service workers transfer us to an aisle chair that can fit down the narrow width of the aircraft aisles, then push us on board, and then transfer us again into a passenger seat. A lot can go wrong with all those transfers. And believe me, it does - really terrible things happen to wheelchair users way too often." Piscopo shared a personal story of being injured by an airline employee when no airline service worker could be found to transfer him into an aisle chair. "Airlines outsource this work to airline service providers, who are forced to compete to offer the lowest price instead of the best service. Our service is reduced to a race to the bottom system."

Jennifer Kumiyama, an actor, advocate, and the citywide accessibility coordinator for the city of Long Beach, CA. Kumiyama echoed Piscopo's experiences: "For me, transferring from chair to chair requires something like a bear hug, chest to chest with a stranger. I don't think the people that are responsible for getting us in and out of the airplanes are provided with the tools and the training and the resources they need to successfully and confidently assist somebody in such a personal way. I'm actually flying tomorrow, and I've had anxiety for the last week."

Cecilia Ortiz who alleges that she was unfairly terminated from her job as an airport service worker in retaliation for union organizing; the union has filed unfair labor practice charges on her behalf. "I'm proud that my work protects the rights of people with disabilities. But there are problems at work you know that keep us from being able to provide the best quality service to passengers." Ortiz highlighted gaps in her training, particularly around the nuances of different types of disabilities and the ways to properly support different passengers' needs and communicate respectfully. She continued, "We need better training, and we want better training. We need better pay and benefits so that we can afford to stay in our jobs and not have to go to work sick. And we need the companies to listen to us and respect our rights to form a union."

"SEIU is proud to join forces as we urge the Department of Transportation's proposed rule be approved with the strongest possible training requirements," said Rocio Saenz, Secretary- Treasurer of SEIU. "Airport service workers are fighting to organize their union to improve their jobs and the quality of service for passengers they support [...] Corporate greed from the airlines has left this largely black, brown and immigrant workforce underpaid and undertrained for critical services they provide. The workers want to provide their passengers with the highest quality support, but these conditions compromise workers' ability to safeguard passenger safety and dignity as Federal regulations require. Together, we must ensure the safety and dignity of passengers as well as working people."

Marlene Sallo, Executive Director of the National Disability Rights Network summarized the coalition's demands: "Airport service workers and passengers who use wheelchairs all want the same thing: they want workers who can afford to stay in their jobs. They want workers to receive competency-based training that's been developed with the relevant stakeholders and properly enforced - and we are currently in a position to make this happen."

"I am a person with a disability who relies on wheelchair assistance and on a mobility device to get through airports. As essential to me as the engineers who build these planes and the pilots who fly them, are the people who make it possible for me to get from the airport entry onto the plane and who ensure the safe transportation of my mobility scooter. It is because of these workers that I can do my job and that I can see my family and friends and be there for them in good times and bad. The struggles of airport workers and the passengers with disabilities they support are inextricably linked," said AAPD President and CEO Maria Town.

The October event was moderated by Ari Ne'eman, consultant to SEIU and an Assistant Professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who summarized the significance of this coalition: "We believe that protecting the safety and dignity of passengers with disabilities and advancing the safety and dignity of the service workers who support them are inextricably linked. The disability rights and the labor communities have shared interests and are collaborating to advance our common dignity and respect."

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