Mobilizing Workers at Toronto Airport
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- Published on Monday, 23 May 2016 23:00
- Written by editor
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1260 .... May 24, 2016
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Mobilizing Workers at Toronto Airport
Sean Smith interviewed by Tim Heffernan
Toronto's Pearson International Airport is Canada's busiest hub and is crucial to the economy. There are more than 40,000 employees working for over 400 employers at the airport, making it the largest workplace in Canada.
The following is an interview with Sean Smith, Mobilization Co-ordinator, UNIFOR 2002 and Representative, Toronto Airport Workers Council. The interview was conducted by Tim Heffernan of Socialist Alternative, where it first appeared. The interview was conducted in April 2016. Here is a useful background story from the Toronto Star, April 2015.
Tim Heffernan (TH): Tell us about the issues facing workers at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.
Sean Smith (SS): Well, what's unique about airline workers [and] that few... people realise is that as the neoliberal era took off in the early 80s, the first part of the federal government that they privatized was Air Canada in 1987. I was an Air Canada worker at the time and if you look around the world you'll see the same pattern emerging. In the U.S. the first wave was the deregulation of the airline industry under Jimmy Carter in 1978, in Canada it came a little bit later under Pierre Trudeau in 1982 and then the privatization of Air Canada. What this means is that as workers most affected on the front lines of neoliberalism, we have seen our working standards fall the quickest and the furthest from other public sector workers who privatized after us.
