{"id":876939,"date":"2026-08-30T11:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T11:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/876939\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T11:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T11:04:20","slug":"moving-tribute-to-oscar-robayo-montreal-airport-worker-crushed-to-death-amid-safety-violations-by-subcontractor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/876939\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving tribute to Oscar Robayo, Montreal airport worker crushed to death amid safety violations by subcontractor"},"content":{"rendered":"

A photomontage tribute to Oscar Robayo, the worker killed at the Montreal airport. The text reads: Oscar, Rest in Peace: Your smile, your warmth and your exemplary work will always remain in our hearts. Goodbye friend. Honour to you, brother. You will never be forgotten. [Photo]<\/p>\n

Oscar Robayo, a 39-year-old ground handling worker at Montr\u00e9al\u2013Trudeau International Airport, was crushed to death Monday while performing a routine pushback operation on a passenger jet. The fatal incident occurred due to systemic violations of basic security protocol by the subcontractor Samsic, a French-based multinational conglomerate that has played a major role in an accelerating race to the bottom in working conditions in airport operations across North America.<\/p>\n

In an initial report<\/a> and a detailed interview<\/a> with a co-worker of the deceased, the World Socialist Web Site exposed how Oscar was forced by the absence of an extension cable to stand close by the front wheel of the massive jet while it was towed into its departure position by a tractor. He was run over by the jet as the tractor driver tried to manoeuvre the plane away from a remote port. The co-worker reviewed a litany of violated safety procedures, broken equipment and corner-cutting by Samsic that contributed to the extremely dangerous working environment that claimed Oscar\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to work with Oscar and met him at Samsic when I started. He was a great friend, great at his job, a smart and happy person with such an amazing personality,\u201d the worker wrote. \u201cAccepted people for who they were and such a kind heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

The outpouring of sympathy and anger following Oscar\u2019s death has found expression in a broad readership for the WSWS\u2019s coverage of the tragedy, as well as numerous comments on articles posted to social media. In our initial analysis, we stressed the necessity of airport workers taking the struggle for workplace safety and improved conditions into their own hands by establishing a rank-and-file committee.<\/p>\n

The deregulation of airport operations, triggering a race to the bottom in conditions for workers, has been spearheaded by the Liberal government. The trade unions have facilitated this process with their support for the\u00a0 collective bargaining framework, through which they have partnered with ruthless subcontractors like Samsic.<\/p>\n

This underlines the need for workers to mobilize independently in a political struggle to end the dominance of corporate profit over basic services like air travel, and the safety and well-being of workers responsible for providing them. They should expect no redress from the official federal and provincial investigations launched into Oscar\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The urgency of workers taking up this fight is demonstrated by the following tribute to Oscar, which reveals the harrowing conditions to which his colleagues continue to be exposed on a daily basis. We urge workers who knew Oscar or work in the highly exploitative airport operations and service sector internationally to contact us with your reports on working conditions, and help build a mass, working-class movement to place workplace safety and the running of social life under democratic, workers\u2019 control.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I want to start off by saying I used to work with Oscar and met him at Samsic when I started. He was a great friend, great at his job, a smart and happy person with such an amazing personality. Accepted people for who they were and such a kind heart.<\/p>\n

We would spend time together when we didn\u2019t have flights. And when I would be done with my flight, I would go help him, and the two other men we always worked with. We were always together, the four of us, and we would always talk about how dangerous and stupid the procedures at Samsic were.<\/p>\n

People are overworked and the older staff has to do a lot of overtime to cover the rest. On the first day of our training, we were already outside on the tarmac and in the bag room being shown everything before we even sat down and went through the rules and safety. I worked for Swissport years back, and we didn\u2019t get on the tarmac for two-four weeks before they showed us all the dangers and stuff like that.<\/p>\n

At Samsic, we would have lots of broken equipment. I once had to move a bunch of cans and bring them to a plane on the tarmac without a license. I was working on an Air France flight and had to bring the max amount of carts, which is five, and they made me go alone as no one was there. I was told, \u201cThe flight needs to leave now, it\u2019s already late.\u201d It was 6:07 and it was scheduled for six… seven minutes for a possible fatal accident to happen because we are low-staffed and rushed. I was so nervous doing that knowing I didn\u2019t have the proper license to be driving alone and could put myself in trouble. But I did it because I was scared of saying no. I called my coworker when I got there and asked him to come back and get me when I arrived at the plane as I was not even allowed to be driving, but my supervisor told me \u201cGO GO GO! Doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions about this article? Ask Socialism AI<\/p>\n

There are not enough people working there and there were countless times I was left to do a whole Porter flight alone or an Air France flight with someone who wasn\u2019t capable of doing the job, or didn\u2019t show up but was punched in. Countless times I was alone and told my supervisors that I had seen that person upstairs in the airport and they just never come downstairs to do their job. It was never looked at or checked. It\u2019s a free for all.<\/p>\n

I told my company countless times that some workers were not fit to do the job or would get hurt. They still kept them. I once also had to drive a cart where the seat was flying back and forth as I drove because the latches to hold the seat were broken.<\/p>\n

While in the bag room, they will also start pulling cans and scream to each other to warn they are about to move. There are no radios to communicate better, it\u2019s all just yelling and hope for the best.<\/p>\n

Accidents happen everyday, even in places we know best.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s important for the company to take some type of accountability, and willingly knowing they don\u2019t follow the right procedures and just want people there right away to start because they are short on staff. Just because people apply to a job doesn\u2019t mean they are qualified, but they will take anyone to get the job \u201cdone.\u201d<\/p>\n

I loved working there but it was because of the people like Oscar, they are the only reason I stayed there. It was a pleasure working with you Oscar, we love you forever buddy.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the IWA-RFC Newsletter<\/p>\n

Get email updates on workers\u2019 struggles and a global perspective from the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A photomontage tribute to Oscar Robayo, the worker killed at the Montreal airport. The text reads: Oscar, Rest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[22365,45,49,48,2338,304170,304169,304171,178334],"class_list":["post-876939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-airport","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal","tag-oscar-robayo","tag-samsic","tag-trudeau-airport","tag-workplace-death"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}