Events

On Wednesday, April 30, 2009, over a hundred airport service workers and community members from the Reaching Higher for Healthcare Coalition led a march and rally at LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal to protest the lack of adequate health care for workers and their families despite their possible exposure to infectious diseases brought in by the high volumes of passenger traffic.

“Masks and hand sanitizers are not enough,” said Julio Topete, a service worker at the Tom Bradley International Terminal. “Too many of us airline service workers have no health care coverage. If I get sick I have no good way to know what I have and to do anything about it.”

During the rally, workers signed a petition calling on the City of Los Angeles to set higher standards for airport employers to ensure family health care for all airport workers. Local health care clinics were also on hand to provide workers and travelers with information from the Center for Disease Control regarding swine flu prevention.

Although their responsibilities place them on the frontline of being exposed to infectious diseases, a forthcoming Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) study shows that an estimated 5,100 LAX workers and their family members lack employer-provided health care.

“We’re really worried,” said Claudia Deleon, an LAX service worker.  “A lot of us work in the international terminal, and we work around thousands of people from all over the world who come through there every day.”

“Swine flu is just one example of the illness and injury these workers face on the job,” said Carolina Briones of LAANE.  “The airlines have not made sure that their contracted employees have health care benefits, so we are calling on the City of Los Angeles to raise standards for companies at LAX and make sure airport workers have family health care.