Disability groups launch safe travel campaign 

NEW YORK – United Spinal Association, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) are urging Transportation Secretary Pete 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. Those requirements include: 

• 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. 

“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,” said Vincenzo Piscopo, president/CEO of United Spinal. “And believe me, it does – really terrible things happen to wheelchair users way too often. 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.” A virtual campaign call in October featured the voices of national leaders, workers and passengers who use wheelchairs, giving them a platform to discuss the urgent need for federal action to protect the safety and dignity of passengers with disabilities and the workers who support them. It was moderated by Ari Ne’eman, consultant to SEIU and an assistant professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “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,” he said. “The disability rights and the labor communities have shared interests and are collaborating to advance our common dignity and respect.” 

• Related: United Spinal Association applauds the $50 million fine levied against American Airlines by the U.S. Department of Transportation to addresses the airline’s longstanding mistreatment of passengers who use wheelchairs.