Free bus rides Tuesday due to drivers’ job action

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This article was published 13/05/2019 (2489 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers can enjoy free bus rides all day on Tuesday, and it’s not a promotion to increase bus ridership.

The free rides are courtesy of transit drivers who are protesting the slow pace of labour negotiations with the City of Winnipeg.

“Our operators will not be enforcing the fares and they will not be informing that fares should be paid,” said transit union president Aleem Chaudhary.

“It’s job action we’re taking in lieu of walking on a picket line. We don’t want to disturb our passengers.”

In fact, it may make them more popular with passengers. Winnipeggers take about 170,000 bus rides per day. If all passengers paid for the rides, free fare would work out to savings in the $450,000 range.

However, Chaudhary said most passengers are commuting to work and use bus passes, so it won’t make a difference for them. He could not estimate the cost to the city but said, “it’s not going to be huge.”

The city says the job action is illegal. When the Amalgamated Transit Union 1505 took a vote, it was neither a mandate for the union to strike or impose job action, said Michael Jack, the city’s chief corporate services officer.

“‘For any city employee who shows up and doesn’t do their job properly, there are always possible job consequences,” Jack said. When asked what those consequences might be, Jack said, “any human resources consequences you might expect for not doing your job.”

Chaudhary doesn’t see it as being an illegal act and insisted that enforcement of payment is not part of their job description. Bus drivers will not reject payment, either.

“Our drivers will not be forcing anyone not to pay. If somebody wants to pay, they can pay,” he said.

However, Jack said fare collection is “absolutely” part of the bus driver’s job.

Chaudhary said the issue may end up before the Manitoba Labour Board. He knows of no other transit union in North America that has not enforced payment of fares, he said.

The Amalgamated Transit Union 1505, with about 1,500 members, has been without a contract since January this year.

Chaudhary said 85 per cent of members took part in its last vote, and of those 98 per cent supported the union. The last time the support was so overwhelming was in the 1919 General Strike, he maintained.

Chaudhary wasn’t specific about what is holding up negotiations but he said issues include the need for better schedules, better service, more buses, more drivers, and better training.

Low morale among drivers and friction between transit workers and supervisors are well documented at Winnipeg Transit. Drivers are also concerned about safety after bus driver Irvine Jubal Fraser was killed on duty on Feb. 14, 2017.

Chaudhary maintained transit employees are “disrespected” by their supervisors. “They’re blamed for just about everything that goes wrong. It is time they’re given respect like everybody else and a safe work environment.”

As for the pace of negotiations, Chaudhary said, “We’re moving ahead but not at the pace we should be moving.”

Jack responded it was the union that cancelled the last bargaining session. “It’s not the first date they’ve cancelled,” Jack added.

Union members were downtown handing out pamphlets notifying people that bus drivers “will not be monitoring fare payment” on Tuesday.

The union says Winnipeg spends the third least in Canada per service hour for public transit.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca