Employees of Securigard, the company that handles security at Vancouver International Airport, have voted 98% in favour of strike action, potentially shutting down YVR. Their Union, the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM) cites working conditions as the biggest issue in this dispute.While the strike vote was already being planned by the news of last week's alleged terror plot in London, that incident did illustrate the importance of having trained, professional security staff at airports across the country. If the airport is the United States, the airport has federal agents from the Transportation Security Agency running security. In Canada, the work of protecting the flying public is contracted out to private companies with a vested interest in keeping costs (especially labour) as low as possible. Why are the people charged with stopping another 9/11 from taking place over Canadian skies treated no differently than shopping mall security guards?
If Securigard staff are expected by their employer and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authourity (CATSA) to handle increasing volumes of volatile passengers carrying apparently volatile materials, they should be getting a level of respect to match the difficulty of the job. America's TSA agents are being subjected to cutbacks from Homeland Security in a drive reprivatize aiport security. When does the race to the bottom start bringing down passenger jets?
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