Airline workers face insults, physical threats as passenger frustration boils over

From verbal abuse to physical threats and police calls, front-line workers in the airline industry are finding themselves on the receiving end of passenger frustrations over flight delays and lost baggage. “I've had customers poke me in the chest and say, 'You're not going to get me off of this flight,”' said Cheryl Robinson, an Air Canada customer service agent at the Halifax airport. “I've seen my colleagues in tears, walking away because they just can't deal with another person yelling at them today.” The frayed nerves and exploding tempers are the outcome of an ongoing struggle by airports and carriers to cope with the massive travel rebound this summer. It also comes as the union representing more than 700 WestJet employees at airports in Calgary and Vancouver says they have voted to support a strike if they cannot reach a new contract with the airline. Toronto Pearson International Airport and Air Canada have topped global lists for share of flights delayed over the past month, frequently surpassing 50% and fanning travellers' ire. “We can all understand why they're angry and frustrated. Your flight gets canceled and they tell you to call and you wait on hold for six hours - and I'm not exaggerating,” said Leslie Dias, director of airlines at Unifor, which represents 16,000 air transport workers, including 5,600 customer service and sales agents at Air Canada. “To some extent, our people are broken,” she said from Calgary, where she is part of the negotiations with WestJet over a deal for the hundreds of baggage and customer service agents. “They're upset, they're often close to tears, they're exhausted. At all airlines they're being asked to work as many hours as they can possibly manage to work. And they feel helpless.”<br/>