Strike takes off

It was surprisingly quiet for passengers inside the Thunder Bay International Airport Wednesday morning as striking Air Canada employees chanted slogans of solidarity outside the terminal.

Flying to Timmins via Toronto, Stephane Wissell said he came to the airport early expecting line-ups in the wake of a national strike for Air Canada customer service agents. But Wissell was part of a slow trickle of passengers coming into the airport about an hour before the 10:10 a.m. flight.

He said the experience was similar to any other time he’s flown with the airline.
"Actually, it was faster today. There was nobody in line. It was better," he said.

Wissell added that he had mixed feelings about the strike, which includes 13 employees in Thunder Bay.

"As long as it doesn’t interfere with us flying out it’s OK. As long as (Air Canada employees) do what they have to and we’ll keep on doing what we have to. "

Penny Robillard registered for her flight to Montreal via Toronto online Tuesday. She was worried about getting to her destination because of messages she was getting from the airline.

"I kept getting urgent messages from Air Canada online about the strike, so I wasn’t sure whether or not I was going to be flying," she said.

But when Robillard got to the airport, there were no problems. Although there were some surprises.

"I was surprised to see the picketers out here," she said.

Robillard said the pickets didn’t have her support.

"I think many people these days are lucky they have a job.”

While Robillards wasn’t in support, Air Canada employee Brenda Lamoureux believes more than 95 per cent of the public passing the pickets are. Lamoureux, and about two dozen people, were outside of the terminal Wednesday morning to answer questions and cheer as truckers honked in support.

"We’ve had so much interest that we’ve actually run out of leaflets," Lamoureux said.

According to the Canadian Auto Workers Union representing the striking workers, the biggest issues are wages and pensions for employees.

"The company wants to cut them back to up to 40 per cent for some of our members and those who are getting on in their years don’t have time to recoup those sorts of losses and we just want to keep what we have.”

Employees have already made wage and other concessions over the last decade, Lamoreux said.

For the union, keeping pensions where they are is necessary, although they’re concerned about the threat of back-to-work legislation from the federal government.

Despite that, Lamoreux said the pickets are in good spirits.

"They’re calm, they’re collected. They just want to provide information to people and get the word out why we’re here.”

Lamoreux added that the pickets will be at the airport every day from 5 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. until a settlement is reached.

"It’s not just for labour. I think it’s for everybody for society in general. We don’t want to have no middle ground. It’s going to be the rich people and the working poor.”