A quiet holiday in Belgium quickly turned into a 19-day fiasco when Laura Pischet’s luggage failed to make the trip – just one example of the trials currently plaguing passengers and airport staff.
For almost three weeks Pishet had been waiting for his bags.
“We waited and waited and waited and, of course, the luggage didn’t show up,” she told CTV National News.
The luggage of the cruise and vacation consultant’s luggage was lost for her entire trip, only to be returned a week after she landed back in Ottawa.
“Interestingly, we were not alone – there were about 8 or 10 other passengers in the same situation,” she said.
The experience is one in a series of recent disappointments for passengers, many of which are caused by staff shortages.
Why are there so few employees at the moment? According to the workers, some of the big reasons are that they are not treated well and their pay is not enough for how difficult the work is.
“There are so many inspection staff who have left because of low pay and poor working conditions that airports are hugely understaffed,” David Lipton, a spokesman for the USW union in Ottawa, told CTV National News.
On Monday, inspectors at 42 airports across the country took action, dressing in casual clothes instead of uniforms, to protest against wages and working hours.
“Workers are working hours and hours and hours without breaks, in many cases with forced overtime,” Lipton said. “Their pay levels are simply not up to par. As a result, many senior officials are leaving to find other jobs. “
These challenges come at a time when staff are so short that some unions offer employees hundreds of dollars a week for screening if they do not take leave or sick days. The union says improving working hours and conditions should happen as soon as possible.
As some experts are cautious about new Omicron sub-options and the vaccine mandate expires on domestic flights on June 20, there are fears that this could lead to more staff leaving.
Lipton says there are usually 350 security guards in Ottawa, but the airport currently has just over 200.
This has a measurable impact on travelers, emphasizing the importance of these jobs.
“There were more and more delays, one to two hours, just to get through the guards,” Hunter Dixon, who was traveling from Phoenix, told CTV National News.
Upcoming work actions are not expected to affect security expectations and will not take place in Toronto, Vancouver or Calgary, where employees are in a different union.
The federal government also said Tuesday that it was aware of the delays and was working on solutions, adding that nearly 900 inspectors had been hired across Canada since April. They said waiting times were reduced, with about 10% of departing passengers forced to wait more than 15 minutes at Toronto Pearson International Airport in early June, compared to 23% in mid-May.
But after a nightmare effort, some passengers are ready to give up flights altogether until airlines eliminate problems that cause staff to flee work.
“What I would say as a holiday consultant is, don’t leave now,” Pishet said. “I mean, it’s going to fix itself, but it’s going to take time.”
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