THUNDER BAY — Safety issues aboard Thunder Bay Transit will be put under the microscope in a review, answering a call the union representing bus drivers made in stark terms before city council Monday night.
Leaders with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 966 told councillors that verbal and physical assault against drivers had become a full-blown crisis.
“Transit operators, your frontline employees, are under attack,” said president Fred Caputo. “Operators are having to deal with physical and verbal assaults. This includes being sworn at, spit at, called derogatory names, pushed, grabbed, and having liquids thrown at them simply for performing their job.”
Union leaders have called those incidents a daily reality for bus drivers, and charged the city’s response has been inadequate.
“Many operators are dealing with mental health issues and PTSD as a result of the increasing incidents and lack of help,” said Caputo, adding staff shortages have contributed to burnout.
“The words ‘Just let them ride’ have become more and more routinely used by the corporation as a way to not deal with the concerns of the operator.”
In response, the union asked council to order a review of operator safety, and to hire dedicated transit security officers at the city hall terminal, among other steps.
Caputo said those security officers must be trained in de-escalation and mental health crisis response, saying that’s where previous staffing using private security has fallen short.
The union also asked the city to staff a second nighttime transit controller, saying that would help increase what Caputo called spotty response times for incidents on board.
The union pulled few punches in describing what it called the failure of transit management and city administration to meaningfully address its concerns.
“Countless labour-management meetings involving transit management and senior city administration staff has resulted in no positive action being taken,” Caputo said. “The time has come where we need a positive, lasting solution to these ongoing safety concerns.”
Caputo repeated a call to install safety shields, saying they still had not been delivered years after the request was first made.
A city plan to test security shields for bus drivers was paused in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as bioshields were installed instead.
Caputo said the city had previously hired a pair of off-duty police officers to provide security assistance between the Water Street and city hall terminals.
“Fast-forward to present day, we’re starting at ground zero — no security, no police, but a continued increase in incidents involving operators and the riding public.”
The union has long raised safety concerns for its members, which include drivers with conventional transit and the LIFT+ specialized transit service, as well as technicians.
Caputo said a majority of incidents are occurring at city hall, but cited the Water Street terminal, Intercity, university and college areas as other hot spots.
Council expressed a determination to confront the problem, calling for a review by administration to be delivered by October, and seeking an update by the end of summer to ensure progress.
“We’re wanting to green our infrastructure and have more people riding mass transit, and this is a serious barrier to that,” said Coun. Brian Hamilton.
City manager Norm Gale said the city is responding to a rising rate of assaults and other disruptive incidents on transit, a phenomenon he and Caputo agreed is beeing seen by public transit agencies nationwide.
“I do wish to provide assurances to council that administration is indeed aware of the challenges our transit operators face, and we are actively exploring solutions,” he said.
Gale pointed to the formation in late 2022 of an employee safety task force with representation from frontline staff including transit operators, paramedics, firefighters, and others.
“Its purpose is to coordinate efforts to address the impacts of increasing exposure to traumatic incidents of these employee groups,” he said.
Westfort Coun. Kristen Oliver, for one, suggested the city consider having security or police ride on routes where reports of assaults and problem behaviour have been more common.
In questioning staff and union leadership, councillors touched on other potential responses including de-escalation training for transit drivers and a peer-to-peer support program modelled on one implemented by other local emergency services.
Caputo said the addition of a second nighttime controller would be an immediately meaningful step.
“A lot of times, we can’t get a response because they’re just unable to make it,” he said. “If we had someone dedicated on the road that that’s what they were doing at night, they’d have a better opportunity of responding to an operator’s call.”
He also suggested that frustration has led to underreporting of incidents.
“Many times, incidents go unreported as operators are fed up with the lack of response,” he said.
