Great Pain, No Gain
The City of Ottawa is still being held ransom to the demands of the Transit Union representing 2,300 OC Transpo drivers, dispatchers and maintenance workers. Ostensibly representing the fortunes of 2,300 workers, but in reality sticking it to the City and its population on behalf of a much lesser number of senior drivers, roughly one-tenth of the total work force.
The strike is going into its 42nd miserable day. The special fund set up to aid those needing social assistance as a result of the problems people have encountered through the strike, has already been exhausted. Low-income applicants for assistance who qualified for help with taxi coupons, or funding for unforeseen bills and supplements to their rent have been so numerous in their need the temporary $200,000 fund was clearly insufficient.
Distress calls for social assistance keep coming in. People have lost their jobs because of an inability to travel to work, and others foresee an imminent loss of employment for the very same reason. People are unable to keep medical appointments or hospital-therapy appointments. Seniors are unable to get out and about without public transit. And students with bus passes attending schools outside their normal jurisdiction cannot attend classes.
People are doing their best to cope without public transit. They've resorted to car-pooling, to hitch-hiking, to bicycling, when this brutal winter season permits, and that's not often. And they have taken to walking long distances to reach their required destination, through icy winds and deeply cold temperatures, fresh-fallen snow and icy sidewalks alternately.
When universities and schools arrange alternate means of transportation for their students through private agencies, the union leaders threaten to picket the schools. There are some area businesses already hit hard enough by the economic slow-down, that are facing a real dilemma of whether or not they will be able to stay open, or be forced to shut down through lack of customers.
Volunteers who normally assist charitable organizations are unable to travel to their destinations to perform their usual volunteer activities. Everyone's routines have been disrupted as working people have been forced to find alternate means of transportation for themselves and for their children. Traffic is constantly congested, and the overall air quality badly impacted.
Traffic tie-ups and frayed nerves are causing people to lose civility. There is a far greater incident of road and highway traffic accidents. Partially as a result of the season of the year, with an abnormally cold winter, and incessant snow, creating difficult driving conditions at any time, all the more so when the roads and highways are that much more packed with people irritated by long commutes.
Neither the municipality nor the transit union is willing to budge on negotiations. Neither entity is adequately concerned about the welfare of the population being so ill served. When the strike eventually is concluded and transit returns to normal, it won't be anything approximating normal for a good long period of time, while the buses undergo required maintenance before they can be put back on the transitway.
And there is the prospect of 500 drivers who will be laid off for up to three and a half months until the system is back up and running properly. Those lay-offs will be affecting junior drivers, who were coerced into complicity with the union's determination to support the perceived entitlements of senior drivers. So how has the union served its junior drivers, roughly 50% of drivers?
They have had to sacrifice their normal salaries while out on the picket line, urged to maintain solidarity for the good of the union. They now face an additional three months and perhaps more of waiting before they can be called back to duty, and with it their salary. A salary, even without the negotiations, which many in the city would love to be able to earn, along with the additional perquisites.
The city council, particularly the mayor, along with the transit union, have served this city badly. A plague on all their houses.
The strike is going into its 42nd miserable day. The special fund set up to aid those needing social assistance as a result of the problems people have encountered through the strike, has already been exhausted. Low-income applicants for assistance who qualified for help with taxi coupons, or funding for unforeseen bills and supplements to their rent have been so numerous in their need the temporary $200,000 fund was clearly insufficient.
Distress calls for social assistance keep coming in. People have lost their jobs because of an inability to travel to work, and others foresee an imminent loss of employment for the very same reason. People are unable to keep medical appointments or hospital-therapy appointments. Seniors are unable to get out and about without public transit. And students with bus passes attending schools outside their normal jurisdiction cannot attend classes.
People are doing their best to cope without public transit. They've resorted to car-pooling, to hitch-hiking, to bicycling, when this brutal winter season permits, and that's not often. And they have taken to walking long distances to reach their required destination, through icy winds and deeply cold temperatures, fresh-fallen snow and icy sidewalks alternately.
When universities and schools arrange alternate means of transportation for their students through private agencies, the union leaders threaten to picket the schools. There are some area businesses already hit hard enough by the economic slow-down, that are facing a real dilemma of whether or not they will be able to stay open, or be forced to shut down through lack of customers.
Volunteers who normally assist charitable organizations are unable to travel to their destinations to perform their usual volunteer activities. Everyone's routines have been disrupted as working people have been forced to find alternate means of transportation for themselves and for their children. Traffic is constantly congested, and the overall air quality badly impacted.
Traffic tie-ups and frayed nerves are causing people to lose civility. There is a far greater incident of road and highway traffic accidents. Partially as a result of the season of the year, with an abnormally cold winter, and incessant snow, creating difficult driving conditions at any time, all the more so when the roads and highways are that much more packed with people irritated by long commutes.
Neither the municipality nor the transit union is willing to budge on negotiations. Neither entity is adequately concerned about the welfare of the population being so ill served. When the strike eventually is concluded and transit returns to normal, it won't be anything approximating normal for a good long period of time, while the buses undergo required maintenance before they can be put back on the transitway.
And there is the prospect of 500 drivers who will be laid off for up to three and a half months until the system is back up and running properly. Those lay-offs will be affecting junior drivers, who were coerced into complicity with the union's determination to support the perceived entitlements of senior drivers. So how has the union served its junior drivers, roughly 50% of drivers?
They have had to sacrifice their normal salaries while out on the picket line, urged to maintain solidarity for the good of the union. They now face an additional three months and perhaps more of waiting before they can be called back to duty, and with it their salary. A salary, even without the negotiations, which many in the city would love to be able to earn, along with the additional perquisites.
The city council, particularly the mayor, along with the transit union, have served this city badly. A plague on all their houses.
Labels: Human Relations, Realities, Whoops
posted by Pieface @ 6:41 PM
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