Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
Posted Wednesday, July 20, 2022 7:03 pm EDT
From verbal abuse to physical threats to calls to the police, frontline workers in the airline industry are on the receiving end of passenger frustrations over flight delays and lost luggage.
“I’ve had customers punch my chest and say, ‘You’re not going to get me off this flight,'” said Cheryl Robinson, an Air Canada customer service agent at Halifax airport.
“I’ve seen my colleagues crying, walking away because they just can’t deal with another person yelling at them today.”
“It makes you cringe,” said Robinson, who has worked at the airport for more than 24 years. “This is probably the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
The frayed nerves and explosive tempers are the result of airports and airlines continuing to struggle to cope with the massive uptick in travel this summer.
It also comes as the union representing more than 700 WestJet employees at Calgary and Vancouver airports says they have voted to strike if they can’t reach a new contract with the airline.
Toronto Pearson International Airport and Air Canada topped global charts for the proportion of flights delayed over the past month, frequently topping 50 percent and stoking travellers’ ire.
“We can all understand why they are angry and frustrated. They cancel your flight and tell you to call and wait six hours on hold, and I’m not exaggerating,” said Leslie Dias, director of airlines at Unifor, which represents 16,000 air transport workers, including 5,600 customer service and sales. Air Canada agents.
“To some extent, our people are broke,” he said from Calgary, where he is part of negotiations with WestJet over a deal for hundreds of baggage handlers and customer service.
“They are upset, often on the verge of tears, they are exhausted. In all airlines they are required to work as many hours as possible. And they feel powerless.”
Dias added that police officers are called to the airport gates every day due to verbal harassment from travelers.
The aftermath of a “disaster sink” deters new recruits and lowers retention rates, he said.
Dias is asking management for a stronger security presence as well as higher wages to attract more workers, which would speed up passenger processing and make employees feel safer, he said.
Workers in Calgary and Vancouver negotiating their first collective bargaining agreement with WestJet start at $15.55 an hour, peaking at $23.87 an hour after seven years, he said.
On Wednesday, those employees voted 98 percent to strike if they can’t reach an agreement with the airline, and could walk off the job on July 27, Unifor said.
“The pay scale has not been increased in more than five years, making WestJet’s wages among the lowest in the Canadian aviation industry and unable to compete with runaway inflation,” said a Unifor spokesman, Scott Doherty, in a statement.
The union also highlighted a “pressure cooker atmosphere”, stating that workers have suffered verbal abuse and physical threats from travelers whose flights were delayed or canceled by the airline.
WestJet Executive Vice President Angela Avery said the strike vote is a “common step” in the negotiation process and “was not unexpected.”
“We remain focused on successfully negotiating an agreement that provides value to our airport employees,” he said in a statement.
“As the airline rebuilds, the majority of its airport employees have been with the company for less than a year, and the vast majority of more tenured airport employees have received raises through the existing pay structure, as well as a leading variable in the Canadian industry. compensation.”
Before initiating any strike action, Unifor must notify WestJet 72 hours in advance.
Flight attendants and customs officers also face their own challenges as passengers.
“It’s like a 9-to-5 job that has now become a seven-day-a-week job with no set hours,” said Wesley Lesosky, who heads the airline division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents about 15,500 workers. .
“If you have children, if you have a family, a partner, a dog, cats… everything is up in the air.”
Frustration over long security lines, missed connecting flights, misplaced luggage and hours on the tarmac has brought emotions to a “boiling point… leading to an increase in reports of harassment and abuse, physical and verbal,” said Crystal Hill, president of CUPE 4070, which represents some 4,000 WestJet flight attendants.
“This is really scary when you’re 40,000 feet above the ground.”
Border security agents are also facing exasperation from passengers, at least 30 percent of whom show up at ground and air checkpoints without having completed their ArriveCan application, said Mark Weber, president of the Union of Customs and Immigration.
“We are seeing an increase in verbal abuse. In many cases they are waiting in line for two, three hours to reach us. We fully understand why they are frustrated,” she said.
The rise of automated kiosks to process international arrivals at some airports has not offset staffing cuts that helped reduce customs agents at Pearson Airport from 600 in 2017 to 300 today, it added.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 20, 2022.
Companies in this story: (TSX:AC)