An 18-year-old ramp worker at Pearson airport is in hospital in critical condition, the Star has learned, after a runway accident last week that has unions sounding the alarm over airport safety.

The Swissport employee was reportedly completing a 16-hour baggage handling shift early last Thursday when his cart crashed into a refuelling truck — throwing him from the vehicle and trapping him under its wheels, according to Michael Corrado of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers.

Peel Regional Police confirmed the collision to the Star, and said a man was transported to hospital in critical but stable condition with head and arm injuries. He was later taken to a trauma centre, where he remains in care.

“Your heart just breaks, because it’s someone who’s just starting their life,” said Sean Smith of the Toronto Airport Workers’ Council.

But union reps say the tragedy points to broader issues surrounding airport worker safety, including low wages, high staff turnover and lack of standardizing training and safety procedures.

“Every day there is less and less experience amongst the workers there, no matter what company you’re working for,” said Corrado, whose union represents refuelling workers at Pearson.

“They can’t keep an employee for what they’re paying them. These young kids are just working unlimited overtime.”

Corrado said the industry standard for full-time baggage handlers is an eight-hour shift.

Swissport baggage handlers are represented by Teamsters Local 419, whose vice-president Harjinder Badial said he couldn’t comment on the circumstances surrounding the accident until a full investigation was complete.

“It was raining, it was still dark outside — there are a lot of different factors that could have contributed to this accident,” he said.

Peel police said federal aviation safety officials are investigating the accident. Employment and Social Development Canada is also conducting an investigation.

Corrado, whose own members will lose their jobs this October when Pearson’s refuelling contract changes hands, told the Star he was worried high employee turnover and lower wages could prompt future safety incidents in high-risk refuelling work at the airport.

Badial added that poor wages were a concern across the airport and resulted in many Pearson employees taking on unsustainable workloads.

“In this industry you have a lot of companies that bid and undercut each other, and really, they drive the wages down low because of it.”

Smith, of the Toronto Airport Workers’ Council, said last week’s tragedy highlighted the urgent need to improve the airport’s safety co-ordination. His organization will next month formally request that the Greater Toronto Airport Authority establish an airport-wide safety council that includes workers, which Smith says the authority has so far failed to implement.

“They’re the airport authority, and they need to exercise that authority and work with all groups under their jurisdiction,” he said.

Currently, individual service providers at the airport maintain their own safety procedures with little co-ordination, according to Smith.

Responding to questions from the Star, a GTAA spokesperson Shabeen Hanifa said safety is a priority at Pearson.

“Any accident that occurs at the airport — such as the Swissport accident last week — is felt across the entire airport community,” Hanifa said.

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“The approximately 40,000 employees who work at the airport are responsible for the safety of each person who works, uses or visits Toronto Pearson. To support this principle several joint safety committees exist that include the GTAA’s external partners from across the airport community.”

In an emailed statement to the Star, the CEO of Swissport Canada Ground Handling Olivier Matthey said his company is working closely with Employment and Social Development Canada to find out how the accident occurred, and said Swissport would immediately implement any new safety measures recommended by the investigation.

“At this time, our focus is on participating fully in the investigation and ensuring our colleague and the rest of our staff are supported during this difficult period,” he said.