Toronto Pearson airport staff shortages are causing unsustainable delays for travellers and it’s all because staff are being underpaid, says a Unifor spokesperson.
Lines with more than 100 people fill up customs daily as travellers try to check back into Canada.
The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) said in a May press release that the delays are caused by many factors that are out of the airport staff’s control. Today, it called for Ottawa to pause COVID testing to allow for quicker processing of passengers.
The GTAA said that international passenger numbers are set to increase by 50 per cent in the near future and urged the government to “act immediately to temporarily pause random testing on arrival in airports for an immediate improvement” until the ArriveCan app upgrades have been made.
“Airports have been ringing the proverbial alarm bells about the comparative lack of investment in the sector, critical projects that had to be deferred, layoffs of specialized labour and the resulting labour shortage, as well as the financial challenges still faced as a result of the pandemic,” it said in May.
Unifor spokesperson Scott Doherty, who is also executive assistant to the National President, emphasized this issue.
“Across the country we are experiencing delays in airports around the country and there are a lot of reasons for that but the biggest reason is money,” he said.
There is a shortage of workers and a shortage of good paying jobs and they continue to cause Canadians grief in airport travel Doherty said.
COVID-19 mandates at the airport have some travellers sceptical about whether safety precautions against the virus could be cause for the delays, but Doherty said “its a cop out.”
“I don’t believe COVID has anything to do with staffing shortages,” he said. “There’s certainly people getting sick but the numbers are not any different than any common workplace.”
Retired NHL player Ryan Whitney is among many travellers frustrated with the delays.
On Monday, he took to Twitter to express his frustrations with the airport calling it “the biggest disgrace known to man.”
Whitney landed in Toronto at 3 p.m. Sunday before waiting three hours to get through customs.
He complained his airline Air Canada communicated poorly with travellers, and he was left waiting for hours before finding out his connecting flight to Boston was cancelled.
“There were a million cancelled flights and everyone was just panicking. At this point now, I go and see that there’s about a 400-person line with about two Air Canada workers,” he said.
Doherty said there’s not going to be a solution to airport delays until there’s a living airport wage for workers, which should be $21 hourly at minimum.
“Travellers are only going to continue to experience delay issues until the government and airline corporations realize their staff is frustrated and can’t live off the wages they are offering,” he said.