Well, it's day 28 in the OC Transpo strike here in Ottawa and I'm gonna put in my two cents. I am one of the lucky ones who don't really need OC Transpo. I don't have my drivers licences so it's more of a convenience than a necessity, but that being said I like it when it's around. That way if I want to go farther than South Keys I can. I can usually just wait until my husband gets home and then we take the car to where we need to go. Jason has managed to find a fellow co-worker who has a parking pass so he can get a lift in every day. The minor inconvenience is that he has had to stop working compressed and switch to her hours. Again all minor annoyances but livable. But there are others I know who rely on this service and have been greatly hampered by it's lose. For example, my youngest sister is a University of Ottawa student and the strike came during her exam time. For the first bit there was no shuttle in the west end so my mother who works was having to drive my sister during her lunch to school so she could go to her exams. Eventually the U of O added shuttle service to the west end, so my mom was driving her to the shuttle point and picking her up. I have just read on CFRA that U of O will be removing shuttle service after this Friday because it must respect the OC Transpo drivers. Frankly I find this idea stupid. I am sure that my sister is not the only one who has no other way to get to school except for this shuttle service. My sister and other students like her pay quite a bit of money to go to school and now have to figure out a way to get there. But does anyone really care about them? The university already has their money so why should they care? I blame U of O for making a very poor decision!
In my work experiences I have been a part of negotiating to bring a union in and also have been part of a union where our contract was up and people wanted to strike. (Not that it would have been able to do anything considering my union was only 63 people scattered between four buildings and we gave up the right to strike in the previous contract negotiations!) So I have seen both benefits and draw backs to the whole process. I have seen the good side where it was going to prevent management from abusing employees, but also the bad side where union was in my opinion way to powerful and pigheaded! I was part of the whole PSAC strike back a few years ago where my union was not striking but I was denied access to my work for hours on end because strikers were trying to get their point across to management. The mob mentality ruled significantly there. Grown adults calling people names, video taping people, threatening them, cat-calling one women who chose to cross because she was a single mother of three young children and it was strike and not put a roof over their heads and food in their bellies or cross and be ridiculed. I watched members grab a stroller of a woman who was returning from maternity leave but was not in uniform (I worked at DND) to prevent her from going in. Yes you read that right GRABBED THE STROLLER WITH THE BABY INSIDE!! Grown adults under mob mentality.
In my personal opinion I think that both sides should be sent to binding arbitration and the drivers & mechanics legislated back to work. I feel that this strike was called too fast. Where was the working to rule? The members gave the union a strike mandate, fine, that didn't mean that it had to be accelerated to a strike right away. There is avenues of working to rule. No OT and no uniforms. I think that this whole thing amounts to Amalgamated Transit Union President André Cornellier hate-on for Mayor Larry O'Brien. And it is the drivers and the public who are and will suffer for it. Mr. Cornellier has come off in the media as a smug, arrogant man with an extreme dislike for Larry O'Brien. If this vote on Thursday is no (which I think it will be, unfortunatley, because of what I believe to be a lack of thought when it comes to oneself and again mob mentality. Just watch the news clips people were saying no on the way in did they really give it a fair chance and listen or did they bring their preconceived notions in?) the city should just take all offers of the table and sit and wait. And the federal governement should step in and legislate them all back to work. I truly feel sorry for the bus drivers when they do go back to work because they will be the brunt of alot of anger and hostility. I expect that there may even be some physical violence towards them. That is wrong no matter how one feels. I know that there are two sides to every story so I can imagine that there are some things that management is wanting or doing that isn't right either. But the issue I have here is that again, Mr. Cornellier brought the members to this place of a strike without any other action first. And he will not receive the backlash that the bus drivers will. There is no winners in any of this, no matter what anyone thinks. The public will be angry, ridership will go down, members will be angry at others for not siding with them or speaking out. In the end I can only hope that calmer voices will prevail. This is the capital city of Canada and we all deserve better.
Well, we are now at day 45. The federal government said that they won't legislate them back to work. The city streets are back full of cars everyday, parking is at an all time prime in the core. All of this, and no end in sight.
ReplyDeleteI got hopeful last weekend when the Union proposed that the schedule be sent to a non binding mediator and everything else be sent to a binding arbitrator. If the city would have agreed, the union would have gone back to work and we would have some service back and in the next few weeks we would have worked up to a full service. But the city has dug it's heels further. Saying that the whole thing goes or nothing.
Makes you wonder what this strike is really about? Does the city want to get the buses back on the road or are they taking this as an opportunity to reclaim the shortage from last years snow budget?
I understand one aspect from the drivers side, the new schedule which would guarantee the drivers 7hrs of pay in a 13.5 hrs spread instead of 12 hrs is a bit much to swallow.
The union told the city that they could have the schedule if they kept the spread to 12 hrs. but the city refused. Now....Why???
All I know is that Alain Mercier as done a terrible job in all of this. He is in charge of OCTranspo and somehow he is way out of touch with his workforce. He should lose his job after this.
I know that O'Brian has been leading the charge on the city side, and he is being made to look like an ass, but in the end he is operating on the assumption that Mercier is providing to him.
If it was up to me, Cornellier would get the boot too, but if his drivers are happy with him, that won't happen.
In the end come on guys. The trench war is not accomplishing anything, Venture out into the No-mans-land and sign a truce. We are all tired of this.