An illegal protest by security guards threw Pearson airport into chaos Thursday as travellers faced long lineups and delays stretching to several hours.

“Nobody’s leaving. Nobody’s coming in,” said Bassem Hamdy, a passenger on an Air Canada flight from San Francisco. “There are tons of planes just waiting for a gate.”

Hamdy said his plane arrived at 3:50 p.m., but passengers waited on the tarmac for 45 minutes before they could leave.

He said no announcement was made explaining the delay. He only found out about the guards’ work-to-rule campaign after calling Air Canada’s concierge service.

Passengers were frustrated that neither Pearson nor Air Canada gave an explanation for the delays, Hamdy added, calling them “a major inconvenience.”

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority confirmed that a work-to-rule campaign, which security workers began Wednesday, is responsible for the delays.

The workers are in a dispute with their employer, Garda Security, a private company that is contracted by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. CATSA is responsible for passenger screening at airports across the country, and Garda is its largest security services supplier.

Garda Security won an injunction Thursday afternoon that “prohibits workers from slowing down on the job,” said spokesman Joe Gavaghan.

He said he hopes the injunction, granted by the Canada Industrial Relations Board, will stop the delays.

Garda and its employees are in a dispute over staffing, Gavaghan said, adding the workers are unhappy about a new scheduling system.

Despite the injunction, Pearson continued to experience backlogs across the entire airport.

“There was an illegal work action by the screening officers,” said CATSA spokesperson Mathieu Larocque. “There was a clear organized slowdown.”

Larocque says workers slowed down the screening process by taking more time to look at x-rays and to screen passengers. He adds that extra staff from CATSA and Garda was sent to security checkpoints to speed up the process.

“Hopefully we’ll get back to normal very shortly since it’s not normal right now,” he said. “Otherwise it would be against the judgment and they could face more serious consequences.”

Mitch Overholt said passengers on his Air Canada flight from Houston were stuck on the tarmac for nearly two hours. The flight was also an hour late leaving Houston. He said the pilot informed them about the labour dispute.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Ilona Bartman waited in line for over three hours to get through security, and missed her flight. In an email, she said a guard told travellers that “no phone calls and no pictures were allowed.”

If you were delayed at Pearson International Airport send your photos to webmaster@thestar.ca

Read more about: