Transit employees reject proposed agreement, halt voluntary OT

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This article was published 24/11/2023 (704 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City bus drivers and other transit employees will stop working voluntary overtime, after voting to reject the latest contract offer.

The membership of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 — more than 1,400 Winnipeg Transit and Brandon Transit employees — voted Friday not to approve a proposed memorandum of agreement.

The union said it hopes the voluntary overtime ban will make clear it intends to bargain a better deal, but if its grievances aren’t addressed, “actions may escalate to a full-scale strike.”

ATU 1505, which did not immediately return requests for an interview, said in a Friday evening news release the main point of contention is unsafe working conditions.

Transit workers, the union contends, do not feel the compensation and benefits offered are adequate, given increased risks. “There is a prevailing sentiment that the current management is not adequately addressing or taking seriously the employees’ apprehensions in these areas.”

The ATU said union officials are committed to continue talking with the transit agencies to resolve the matter.

The last collective agreement, inked in January 2019, expired in early January. The sides have been in the conciliation process since then; union members voted in favour of a strike mandate in July.

Membership rejected an earlier proposed agreement Oct. 30, before transit and union officials returned to negotiate the now-rejected proposed second agreement.

The union said in its release the voluntary ban is meant to send a message about the “urgency and seriousness” of its concerns. “Transit functions on a large portion of voluntary overtime, as the fleet is missing around five per cent of operators to fully restore services to pre-pandemic levels”

The high demand for OT, the union said, has piled stress on the employees.

There were 104 reported assaults against bus drivers last year, according to Winnipeg Transit data, which marks the highest number since 2000, the earliest year for which city statistics are available.

Ninety-one assaults against Winnipeg drivers were reported in 2023, as of Oct. 13, per Transit data previously provided to the Free Press.

There were 49 such incidents in 2018; there were 66 reports in 2019; 74 in 2020; and 61 in 2021.

Transit previously said that data covers a wide range of assaults against operators in uniform both on- and off-bus, which are based on the criminal code.

The union previously said the numbers surge higher when additional security threats are included, with its internal 2023 security incident numbers tallying up to 208 as of mid-October, compared to 130 last year.

To address safety on Winnipeg Transit and as a campaign promise from Mayor Scott Gillingham, the city has formed a transit security force of 24 community safety officers, which is not yet operational.

An agency spokeswoman said last month the safety team is expected to begin patrols as early as possible in 2024.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca