Posted October 6, 2010 by ThunderBayClassifieds.ca in Thunder Bay News | No comments yet
Barring a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations, city transit workers will hit the picket line next Wednesday morning. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 966 president Charlie Brown on Tuesday told city officials that unless the city takes controversial benefit concessions off the table and agrees to a significant wage increase that brings transit staff in line with workers in other Ontario municipalities, they will have little choice but to walk off the job. “What we’ll be looking at is there will be no transit service whatsoever. People will have to make other alternative arrangements. We will be shutting down transit and nothing will be moving in the city,” said Brown, about an hour after breaking off talks with senior city officials. “That affects approximately 9,000 or more transit riders each and every day. It will be a serious effect to the students at (Lakehead University) and Confederation College, who have bought into the monthly bus passes there as part of their tuition. It’s severely going to affect the elderly that require our service to go shopping and to the bank, and other people who take the bus for their jobs.” Brown said they are ready to meet with city officials through the rest of the week and over the weekend to hammer out an acceptable deal, but they will not be bullied into signing for less than they think they deserve. He added some concessions, including their desire to limit part-time workers and weekend shifts for mechanics have been pulled by the city, but it’s not enough. “The benefit reductions right now actually cancel out the proposal they’ve put on the table for wages, even though we haven’t talked money yet. So if we accepted that deal right now, what would happen is we would be losing money at the end of the day. That is totally unacceptable to us,” Brown said, hunkered down at a local hotel with fellow union officials, considering their next move. “To get the process moving, this is what we’ve done. We’ve got a timeline, we’re going to move on it and that’s all that’s going to happen.” Concessions the city is looking for include upping the dental recall period to nine months from six, the allowance of generic drug substitutions where permitted, no over-the-counter drug coverage and a pharmacy dispensing fee cap. Brown laid the blame at the feet of city council, who he said have given city manager Tim Commisso little leeway in his negotiating abilities. Ultimately it will be up to council to approve the deal, which transit workers have been negotiating with the city for the past 16 months. It’s left Brown feeling a little bewildered. “The city has millions of dollars to spend on all kinds of projects – city hall, the waterfront, whatever. They’ve got millions of dollars set up already for a new centralization of a (bus) terminal. They’ve had gas-tax money for years now that they’ve been refurbishing the entire fleet. “Everything is improving at Transit. Our ridership is up. Our guys are doing their jobs, and at the table instead what they’re saying is concessions and a lousy pay increase. That’s not acceptable to our members. We’ve bought that kind of package in the past, it’s not happening anymore,” Brown said. Brown said bus drivers presently make about $21.52 an hour, but would like to be brought in line with colleagues in Sudbury, where transit drivers make about $24.70 an hour. However, Commisso said it’s not easy to bargain without officially knowing what the union wants. “Nothing has formally been put forward. We’ve heard that, we’ve heard that they consider themselves relatively speaking low (paid), but when you’re in bargaining you put things on the table and you bargain with what is put there. It’s fundamental, and I think they’re saying they won’t do that until the items that we’re looking for with respect to cost containment on benefits are taken off the table,” Commisso said. Alan Hjorth, the city’s manager of human resources, said the city’s offer includes an undisclosed wage increase over a two-year deal that “recognizes the public sector is in an era of restraint.” Commisso said should ATU workers walk off the job on Wednesday, there will be little the city can do to help stranded commuters. “We cannot provide transportation services without drivers,” he said.
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