![]() EP also provides additional third party liability protection, through an excess liability policy, with limits of the difference between the Primary Protection and a combined single limit of $1 million per accident for bodily injury and/or property damage to others arising out of the use or operation of the Owner rental vehicle by Renter or an AAD, subject to the terms and conditions of the policy. If argued right, that could also include developing safety protocols for workers in dangerously hot conditions.For retail rentals only secured with Extended Protection within the cost of the rental (excluding any liability protection or insurance coverage provided under a commercial contract), the following shall apply:Įxtended Protection (EP) (Where available): Owner provides Renter or any AAD with third party liability protection in an amount equal to the minimum financial responsibility limits applicable to the vehicle (the Primary Protection). Labor unions consider it a chance for Congress to require better wages and sick leave for airport service workers. The Federal Aviation Administration’s reauthorization deadline is less than a month away. Prospect Airport Services did not respond to a request for comment.Īdvocates say there is a chance to change things within the airline industry soon. At the airport, cabin cleaners describe drinking water from the bottles passengers leave behind just to stay cool as the cabins they worked in reached unimaginable temperatures. Local emergency rooms have been inundated with patients exhibiting signs of heat-related illnesses. Phoenix has been so hot this summer that people have received third-degree burns from touching asphalt. “Contract workers have nothing,” Van de Kerk said. And the company, as a third party, doesn’t fall under most basic protections for workers. Arizona is a low-bid state, so the airport hired the company that required the least amount of money. She is a contract worker for Prospect Airport Services. Van de Kerk, for example, is not an official employee of the Phoenix airport or any specific airline. ![]() These folks also are disproportionately people of color, and many are immigrants. Unlike flight attendants, these employees are not often unionized, instead contracted by the airline to work in a specific terminal, despite the fact that the airline controls the conditions of their workplace. “Passengers don’t see them.”Īccording to Service Employees International Union, inflation-adjusted wages for airport service workers have not risen in 20 years. “They definitely are the invisible people,” Van de Kerk said. But cabin cleaners can experience stifling conditions when plane engines and air conditioning are turned off during layovers and the jet feels like a superheated aluminum can. Workers like baggage handlers and runway signalers who direct aircraft on the tarmac are obviously most at risk from dangerous heat exposure. Phoenix airport workers hope their complaint will push the agency to rigorously enforce these regulations. In July, the Biden administration took steps to address the mounting problem, introducing an OSHA enforcement initiative on extreme heat that would ramp up workplace inspections in high heat areas and issue hazard alerts to employers. A thirst strike in Washington, D.C., led by Texas Representative Greg Casar called attention to similar workers’ plights in his home state, while airport service workers at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport have spoken out about their conditions. Such calls have come to a head in the record-shattering summer of 2023 and follow protests in Phoenix and beyond. Advocates hope it could motivate the agency, which governs workplace safety, to consider a blanket federal extreme heat standard for American workers. The move comes after years of increasingly unbearable summers in Arizona and the Southwest that have seen temperatures increasingly ascending well into triple digits, but it could have ramifications much farther afield. It is the first heat-related OSHA complaint from U.S. The employees, supported by Service Employees International Union, requested an inspection of working conditions they say leave them vulnerable to heat illness and exhaustion. ![]() ![]() On August 24, Van de Kerk and 11 of her fellow airport service workers - from passenger service assistants like her to baggage handlers and cabin cleaners - filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA. By the time workers who request a breather get to the one break room available to them, their 20-minute allotment is all but over. “We’re not allowed to sit down unless we’re on an official break,” said Van de Kerk, and those come few and far between.
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