The O.C. Transpo Bus Strike
Posted by Chris on January 12, 2009 @ 11:26pm
So…living in Ottawa is sucking right now. OC Transpo went on strike over a month ago, a first since 1996 in this city. I have to tell you…I haven’t taken a bus since playing video games at the famed Billings Bridge arcade (you could play Golden Axe and Mortal Kombat AND buy a dimebag or get stabbed). I used to take the 144. The famed 144. I’d dread taking that bus, because it would be jammed with about 1000 kids all swaying to and fro with each stop and go. Everyone was standing. They filled those buses up entirely too much. I don’t know what it’s like now, but bus drivers were never very friendly, and I recall a few of them actually pulling one of those asshole big brother moves, and letting people run for the open doors as they pulled away. I even remember one guy keeping the door open long enough to yell “Too Bad/So Sad” while cackling. I hope it’s gotten better. I think bus drivers work hard for their money, especially taking into consideration the day in and day out.
This strike is related to allowing senior drivers the option to choose their shifts. It was negotiated and they have been doing it for a period of time, but it’s proven costly for OC Transpo, and has been identified as an element that, in the city’s opinion, should be changed in an effort to save money. This really only affects senior drivers. With that said, this is contentious enough issue for the drivers that they’ve turned down a salary increase, and have actually accepted a salary decrease in the past to preserve it. The drivers look at this as a right, and something that has been earned and deserved. This also enables senior drivers the ability to better balance work and their family lives. Fair enough.
With that said, I think most people are aware of how badly OC Transpo has been managed in the last 15 years. It’s no secret. The transit system in this city has been plagued by entitlement, and a sour relationship at best between the amalgamated transit union and OC Tranpo’s management. It’s been an “us vs. them” kind of thing for the last while, and the morale at OC Transpo has been said to be very low, an understatement at best. Taking all of this into consideration, and I think it worth to mention that I don’t even take a bus, and haven’t in a long long time, I think the deal that the city is tabling is fair, and considering the economic and political climate we’ve currently just really begun to weather, I can’t help but feel that the drivers should really be looking at this in a different light. Should they cave into what the city is proposing? No…but they should be actively working at articulating their reasoning with the public in a much better way than what they’re doing now, which is just maximum pissing everyone off. I really blame the city for this one to begin with, as it’s historically allowed OC Transpo to cultivate a toxic working environment over the years, creating a situation where the drivers are disenchanted and untrusting with anything that the city or transit’s management proposes or says. As with any kind of highly public issue that affects virtually everyone, the court of public opinion is important. Perception is something that needs to be handled in a delicate way, ESPECIALLY when you’re making people carpool and walk to work in the middle of the holidays. The drivers don’t “strike” me as a lot that particularly cares about this, so I find myself wondering whether their frame of mind includes what the riders and general public think about the situation. I certainly hear regularly about less senior drivers simply just wanting to go back to work. I can’t help but notice that there’s mechanics, administrative staff, and junior drivers who indicate how little of an impact this has on them, and how they’d prefer to simply get back to it, but the thing that is bugging me the most is the fact that the drivers really don’t seem to give a shit about what the riders and the city think. They come off as indifferent, and that is the Union’s biggest disservice to their members. This creates a sense among the public that they are entitled. Whatever issues are at the core of this situation are secondary to the impression that people have developed of OC Transpo drivers. This issue is affected people’s lives everyday that it continues, and I think that the Union has to start taking that into consideration. This is a complete opportunity for the drivers to connect with their riders in an unprecedented way, and I think Andre Cornerllier is lousy at being the mouthpiece to effectively communicate WHY the scheduling issue is as important as it to the drivers. The bottom line is this. Without riders, the drivers have no jobs. The people are what keeps transit rolling. Not the city, and not the drivers. The people who shell out for bus passes, and who take the actual buses are what keep the wheels turning, and in the end, the city’s inability to effectively manage that system has allowed a situation to occur where roughly 2600 people who operate the service day to day have made a significant day to day impact on our town through simply refusing to work.
I think O’Brien’s intentions are good, but I seriously question whether pushing on this issue at the expense of a long winter strike is making this work. If he’s looking at saving money, there should be a review of the independent audit that was conducted for the city, and they should take a look at other areas of savings. I think there should be a long term investment at OC Transpo to turn around the culture there, and improve the morale and pride that the drivers have, decreasing the mistrust for their considered enemies at City Hall and management, and changing what are clearly poisonous perceptions that everyone has of one another….and if I hear someone else say that it’s impossible, they sound to me like exactly the kind of complacent quack asses that OC Transpo has been staffing in management.
good read — well said!