Out of service?

As the local transit union revs up for a strike vote this weekend, its president said he’s confident his members will vote overwhelmingly in favour of the mandate.

Amalgamated Transit Union president Charlie Brown said he expects the 135 Thunder Bay transit workers to vote strongly in favour of giving the union a strike mandate when they meet Sunday afternoon.

"Bus drivers have been taken advantage of by the city of Thunder Bay for a number of contracts successively and it’s about time we start getting what we need to get," said Brown. "The city is not hurting I’ll tell you that right now. The city of Thunder Bay is doing relatively well, ridership is up and we believe we’ve done a good job and it’s time we got a fair and equitable contract."

So far the city and union have only agreed to fix typos in the contract while the city has only put concessions to benefits and unlimited part-time work on the table, Brown said.

Brown added that it is unreasonable for the union to accept any concessions while every union proposal has been ignored.

After the vote Sunday, Brown said the union will have to wait for a date from the Ministry of Labour before considering any job action. But the union will take any steps necessary, including a work stoppage, to get a fair contract.

"In the meantime I would hope that someone from the city would approach us with a different point of view and perhaps we could get back to the bargaining table," Brown said.

But Brown said with the decisions ultimately up to city council, he doesn’t hold out much hope that will happen.

"City council runs and hides. They sit and make decisions behind closed doors They could put pressure on the people that actually work for them on the management side to get back to the table and start negotiating in a fair fashion," Brown said.

With a municipal election coming Oct. 25 Brown said he thinks council would want to avoid a decision that could leave thousands of people without transit service.

"We don’t want to go on strike and injure anybody as far as the riding public," Brown said. "But we do need a fair contract and that’s where the pressure is going to be."

City manager Tim Commisso said the city and council are doing everything they can to avoid a strike. While he said there is a contingency plan in place should drivers walk off the job, he didn’t want to comment specifically on what the plan includes. He could only say that there is a significant communication strategy, which would be relayed to the public.

"It’s too early to speculate on what may happen," Commisso said. "We’re at the point where I think we’re stalled but we’re willing to carry on and meet and try to work this through but I don’t want to be in a position really of commenting on something until we see what happens."
With students heading back to school and thousands relying on city transit, keeping the buses running is the most important thing for city council Commisso said.

Brown agreed saying while he thinks the public understands that transit drivers have "taken it on the chin" by the city, drivers don’t want to and hope to get back to bargaining soon.

"We just don’t want to hurt the public and hopefully we can resolve these issues. We’re prepared to meet and we’re prepared to talk," said Brown.

No talks have been scheduled.