By Lasia Kretzel

Edmonton transit union visits Saskatoon

Oct 6, 2014 | 6:55 AM

As the city and transit union remain divided on pensions and wages, other unions stepped up to show support for the workers over the weekend.

Twenty-eight Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) workers from Edmonton made the six hour trip by coach to walk the picket line with their Saskatoon counterparts for a few hours.

Their group was one of several unions including the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Public Service Alliance of Canada, and Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL).

Edmonton ATU local 569 president Steve Bradshaw said the unions believe transit workers are “being mistreated by their employer” and maintain their position that the lockout is illegal.

“These people need to be back on their jobs, they need to be earning a paycheck doing the jobs they were hired to do and supporting their families,” Bradshaw said.

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He said Edmonton unions fought the Alberta government’s decision to change the pension from a defined benefits to a defined contribution and were successful.

The sentiment was echoed by SFL president Larry Hubich who called the lockout a “wildcat” and “draconian.”

He said a lockout should not be legal if there are pending matters before the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board (SLRB).

“I think the reason they effected this lockout was because when there’s a lockout or dispute the collective agreement ends and that was their agenda from the get go,” Hubich said. “I don’t think they were ever interested in negotiating a settlement with this group of workers.”

Hubich said he sent out an appeal to SFL’s affiliates for financial assistance for transit workers.

Bradshaw said he believes the city can find room in the budget, which already saw a 7.43 per cent increase in taxes last year.

“It’s easy for them to come to the table and say ‘I’m sorry we just don’t have the money,’ but if you start to dig into the budget and look at where the money is, you get imaginative ways of getting about the problem of the budget.”

A full time Edmonton bus driver at the top of the pay scale earns $31.75 an hour while a Saskatoon driver in the equivilant standing makes $23.85 an hour.

The city’s offer would mean drivers would make $26.33 an hour by 2016 while the union’s offer puts drivers at $27.95 an hour.

Workers earn $150 a week for picketing.

The lockout began Sept. 22.

Labour negotiations between the city and the ATU Local 615 broke down Thursday afternoon.

Saskatoon ATU president Jim Yakubowski hinted the union is trying to bring Vincent Ready into the negotiations, but they haven’t made any headway in getting him to Saskatoon.

Ready is the mediator who helped bring an end to the B.C. teachers strike.

On Friday, SLRB ordered the city of Saskatoon to issue an official letter of apology to a senior transit driver after he was wrongfully suspended for not wearing his seatbelt and not securing his bus when he got up to deal with an unruly passenger in December.

The union and the city are scheduled to meet Monday.

news@panow.com

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