Nearly a hundred wheelchair attendants at Orlando International Airport held a one-day strike Thursday to protest low wages and difficult conditions.
The attendants are employees of Orlando-based Bags Inc., which contracts with several airlines to assist travelers using wheelchairs in navigating between ground transportation and airline gates.
Workers are paid as little as $8 an hour by the company. They also depend on tips but commonly do not receive any. Attendants said travelers typically are unaware that tips are a major part of their income.
Estimated passenger numbers for the Thanksgiving travel season that starts Friday are nearly back to the volumes seen in early 2020 before airline service worldwide collapsed. During peak times then, garages filled to capacity and extended waits occurred at security checkpoints.
“Please practice patience while you travel and allow yourself more time for parking, check-in and security,” airport operations chief Tom Draper said in a statement.
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