BY JOHN STEELE
TORONTO - Striking ground and maintenance workers at
Toronto's Pearson International Airport are more determined
than ever to win their strike. The 520 workers, responsible for
runway and electrical systems maintenance, are members of Local
0004 of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) which
represents 155,000 workers, most of whom are employed by the
federal government. Since airports were privatized two years
ago, airport workers now work for private corporations, but are
still covered by federal laws.
Their strike against the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) began October 2. The workers have had a wage freeze for seven years. The GTAA bosses have refused their demand for parity in wages and benefits with workers in other airports across the country. Pearson is the country's busiest airport.
"We are getting support from other airport workers," said electrician's helper Tom Maharaj, at the Britannia Road picket line. "The air traffic controllers can't legally refuse to cross our picket line so they bring us donuts and coffee. They know where we're coming from since they are in contract talks and they are going to have a fight on their hands." Electrician's helpers like Maharaj earn Can$12.70 (Can$1 = US$0.65) an hour.
Greg Dufour was the picket captain on the line that afternoon. He is also an electrician's helper. The picket captains and the bargaining committee are the strike leadership. Dufour like the other 30 or so picket captains have volunteered to take on this leadership responsibility. Like Maharaj, this is Dufour's first strike.
At the Britannia Road line, one of the main entrances into the airport for airport workers, the job of the pickets is to slow traffic into the airport 24 hours a day. They hold cars coming in and out for a 15-minute period and are careful to keep accurate time limits so as not to give the GTAA an excuse to seek a court injunction against picketing. Today the line of cars waiting to get in stretches about half a kilometer. They don't let the GTAA bosses in at all, advising them to find another gate.
"We are determined and people are firm," said Dufour. "We get about 300 members on the picket lines around the airport each day." The strikers picket in four-hour shifts. Some of the lines like the one at Britannia road are round-the-clock. Strike pay is Can$35 a day. According to Dufour the local went into the strike with about Can$4,000.
The national PSAC is maintaining the strike financially. And several thousand dollars in donations has come in from other unions.
"We have had some problems at picket lines we have put up at the airport parking garages," said Dufour. The strikers have used this tactic which has resulted in long lines of passengers waiting to get their cars into the parking garages. "One driver went after a picket with a hammer," said Dufour. The strikers at the request of the GTAA took these lines down for a while as a condition for further negotiations. But the GTAA didn't put anything new on the table, so these roving lines are appearing at the three terminals again.
Early on in the strike, the union warned that if the strike was of any length, airport safety would be compromised by the GTAA bosses, who replaced the strikers on the job with unskilled management personnel.
According to a union press release, a pilot recently informed a management replacement worker that he had guided the pilot into a near collision with another plane on the tarmac. Terminal 1 suffered a two-hour power failure, including the fire alarms. One aircraft backed into a food service truck. And aircraft approach lights to one of the runways have gone out. The GTAA bosses claim the wires were cut in a locked area, implying strikers have carried out sabotage.
"The area they are referring to is not locked," said Dufour. "They haven't let the union into the area where they say the wires were cut."
The strikers have commissioned an international consulting firm to review the safety risks at the airport, and have invited the GTAA to participate in the review. The GTAA has refused. The union has asked that the consulting firm report be submitted by November 4.
"The GTAA bosses are hurting," said Dufour. "The Canadian Labor Relations Board just ruled in favor of PSAC's charge that they are engaged in unfair labor practices by threatening the jobs of snow removal contract workers who refuse to cross our picket line." Dufour explained that the seasonal contract workers are members of the union. The CLRB ruling recognizes this and their right not to cross the line and keep their jobs following the strike.
John Steele is a member of the International Association of Machinists. Gabriel Charbin contributed to this article.