AP Features, July 2nd, 2007
Two workers who provide wheelchair assistance at Los Angeles International Airport filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation, claiming their employer hasn't provided proper training and well-maintained wheelchairs.
The complaint filed Thursday alleges Aero Port Services has failed to train some of its 350 wheelchair assistance employees, leading to eyewitness accounts of three customers being dropped from their wheelchairs in the last 12 months, among other problems.
A company employee reached by phone after-hours Friday said he could not answer questions and said to call back during business hours.
Stephan Park, director of Aero Port Services' legal department, said the company has nurses provide training in how to help people in wheelchairs. He said the company has 75 new wheelchairs in its fleet of 100 and has ordered an additional 40 chairs.
Aero Port Services had had a contract for about four years to work at the airport's Tom Bradley International Terminal.
Park said the complaint may be an attempt to "put pressure" on the company to unionize.
"We are one of only two ground-handling companies that are not unionized," he said.
Carolina Briones of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, a labor-backed community group, said Parks was mistaken.
Unionizing "is not what the complaint is about," Briones said. "This is about safety for the disabled and those handling them."
The employees' complaint states the company has violated parts of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Air Carrier Access Act, requiring that airlines and airports make accommodations to assist disabled passengers with traveling.
