MISSISSAUGA, Ontario— “Share the news. It must get around to everybody,” striker Maged Awad told the Militant as we walked the picket line at Toronto Pearson International Airport here April 20. Some 800 Teamsters Local 647 members struck airline meal caterer Gate Gourmet four days earlier.
“Wages aren’t good here,” said Hali Hashi. “Starting wage is $17.69. We’re asking for $20.69.” Ontario’s minimum wage will go up to 17.20 Canadian dollars ($12.56) Oct. 1. “I’ve worked here 24 years and I earn $22.48,” said Rupinder Toor. “During the pandemic we helped the company and took a wage freeze. For six years we had no raise.”
Strikers prepare in-flight food and deliver it to the planes. “Drivers have no breaks or lunchtime. If you work fast, maybe, otherwise, nothing,” Luan Grajqevci, a driver with 20 years’ seniority, said, speaking for a group of drivers.
“They keep people on overtime. It creates accidents. It’s not right,” he said. “We work by the planes in winter. People get injured. We had a big fight to get access to the elevator for an injured worker in a wheelchair. He couldn’t get up to the employee cafeteria on the second floor. We had to go to the union.
“One contract, we got a penny raise. We’re underpaid,” he added.
“They said you are lucky we’re giving you jobs. They took agency people, putting full-timers out of work during the pandemic,” said Toor. She called pickets together for a group shot with the Militant reporters, who had brought solidarity and muffins.
“Everything is going up, so why not our wages?” asked Hajinder Gill. “That’s why I’m here. Work inside — it’s cold, it’s heavy.”
Pickets circled in front of the Gate Gourmet entrance, while three vans filled with strikebreakers waited to get in. Although the bosses maintain some production, WestJet and Air Canada, Canada’s biggest airlines, are warning flyers that in-flight food options will be reduced or unavailable. Toronto Pearson is Canada’s largest airport.
After the union rejected the company offer of only 12% over three years, government mediators intervened to bring both sides back to the table.
“Unfortunately, Gate Gourmet is more interested in keeping their workers close to the poverty line than they are in bargaining,” Martin Cerqua, president of Teamsters Local 647, told the media. “This strike will be over the minute Gate Gourmet decides to value its employees as much as it values profits.”
The picket lines are up 24/7 at 2498 Britannia Road E, in Mississauga.