SEIU Airport Service Workers Applaud Landmark U.S. DOT Penalty Against American Airlines

SEIU’s Saenz: Landmark $50M fine ‘important step toward accountability for American Airlines’

WASHINGTON – The two million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) applauds the U.S. Department of Transportation and Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who issued a landmark $50 million penalty Wednesday against American Airlines for serious violations of the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), the federal law that makes it illegal for airlines to discriminate against passengers because of their disability. Among American Airlines’s violations of the ACAA, DOT determined the company failed to ensure personnel and service providers were trained to proficiency in providing boarding assistance to passengers who use wheelchairs.

“I'm proud that my work protects the rights of people with disabilities,” Laura Kelly, a wheelchair agent at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, shared. “But there are problems at work that keep us from being able to provide the best quality service to passengers. 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.”

DOT’s action signals a new standard of accountability for airlines that violate passengers’ with disabilities rights. While all major U.S. airlines fail passengers with disabilities, in 2022 American Airlines’ complaint rate was the highest among all US reporting carriers, and between 2019 and 2023, American Airlines had the highest rate of mishandled wheelchairs among major carriers. “This fine is an important step toward accountability for American Airlines,” SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Rocio Saenz said in reaction to the news.

“American Airlines routinely ranks among the worst airlines on wheelchair complaints. They are also failing the Black, brown and immigrant-powered workforce that supports their passengers and services their planes by refusing to ensure sufficient training, safe staffing or good union jobs that pay living wages.

That’s why airport service workers from coast to coast have been standing up to corporate greed, organizing their workplaces and demanding a stronger future for air travel and the workers who make it possible. They have united with disability advocates to demand good jobs for good airports and safe, dignified treatment of all passengers on every airline because our fates are intertwined. We’re in this fight together, and we’ll keep fighting until we win.”

Airport service workers make travel possible for passengers by keeping airports safe, clean, and running. As the union representing 40,000 airport service workers across the nation, SEIU has been working in coalition with disability rights partners including the United Spinal Association, the National Disability Rights Network, and the American Association of People with Disabilities to call out the airline industry’s failure to meet their obligations under federal law and advocate to improve service for passengers who use wheelchairs by ensuring airport service workers have the training and support they need.
The coalition’s demands include:

1. 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;
2. That DOT partner with disability rights groups and the union representing service workers, as well as airlines and their service providers, to develop and implement this training, and critically,
3. That DOT pursues active, vigorous enforcement of airline compliance.

As DOT considers final rules, the coalition is urging Secretary Buttigieg to adopt the strongest possible training requirements for airport service workers who support passengers with disabilities. This coalition, along with 51 other disability rights advocacy organizations, collectively signed a comment to strengthen the DOT’s proposed rules to expand access to aviation for passengers who use wheelchairs.

Airlines are required by law to safeguard passengers’ with disabilities safety and dignity, but they have not invested in the well-being of passengers and workers. Passengers and workers both report that workers are not adequately trained, staffed or equipped for their critical work. Further, airlines pressure airline service providers to provide services for the lowest cost, which results in low 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.