“Whatever happens to us is going to happen to everybody else”
Toronto airport strikers speak out
By
our reporters
4 September 2017
Baggage handlers and other ground crew have been on strike at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport for over a month in a fight against Swissport, one of the world’s largest airline service-providers.
The 700 workers are resisting Swissport’s attempt to further reduce their already low wages and gut working conditions. Although Swissport, with the support of the government-owned Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) and the tacit backing of the federal Liberal government, is seeking to break the strike using scabs (replacement workers), the Teamsters leadership is doing nothing to mobilize the working class in defence of the Swissport workers. World Socialist Web Site reporters visited picket lines at Pearson Airport last week and spoke with strikers.
David started with the airport in 2003 in central de-icing and has seen conditions deteriorate with changes in ownership over the years. A baggage handler for more than three years at Swissport, David told the WSWS, “They want to take away our wages and take away our benefits—they want to take all that down and they want to take away our vacations. They wanted to give everybody rotating shifts, to give everyone just 96 hours to say, ‘OK, we’re going to change your hours’.”
David explained how the decision to reject the latest contract offer in an August 23 vote and continue the strike was wholly on the workers’ own initiative. “In the latest vote, the union didn’t say anything about the new contract offer. They made us make the choice. They read it out and then said, ‘You guys…