Pay Winnipeg Transit workers more, avoid disruptions, union says
Union president John Callahan says transit mechanics make $4 to $5 per hour less than national average
The union representing Winnipeg Transit workers says recent service disruptions all come back to employees being pushed to work too much overtime and not getting compensated fairly for their time.
Some transit users in Winnipeg are waiting at the bus stop for longer than usual as service disruptions spread throughout the city.
As part of a labour dispute, bus drivers and maintenance workers have been refusing voluntary overtime shifts since April. Some transit users in Winnipeg are waiting at the bus stop for longer than usual and having to make alternate transportation plans.
"We don't like doing what we're doing but we have to do it to prove a point," said John Callahan, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505. "The point is you cannot continue to depend on massive amounts of overtime to run the service."
Operators with the city start at $18.40 an hour. Callahan said it takes five years to reach the top of the pay scale at $25.64.
"Right now we feel we are four to five dollars an hour below the national standard for mechanics."
Taken together with the demands of an average day on the job, Callahan said waiting that many years "is a lot to ask."
"Drivers work eight hours a day, but it's over a 13.½ hour period, because they cover three different shift segments," he said. "They can be in uniform 15 hours a day, including their ride to and from work, so it's a long day.''
Mechanics refuse overtime
Callahan said one of biggest issues is that mechanics who repair the buses will not work overtime either.
"Our maintenance staff hasn't been working, so with the mechanics not working overtime our out-of-service [buses have] climbed to 102 buses as of [Tuesday]," he said, adding those many of those buses are broken and in need of repairs.
"By the end of the long weekend it may be up around 125."
That number is out of a total of 580 buses that operate across the city. Even if the overtime ban was lifted today, Callahan said it would take six months to a year to get the broken buses back on the road.
''If we were pushed into a strike, I think it would take four to five years to get back to where we are now," he said, adding it's a challenge to attract and retain employees based on where things are with the city.
Callahan says previously many mechanics were working double shifts every day to keep buses running.
Riders make backup plans
For Rachelle Fray, and others who depends on the bus to get to and from work and appointments on a daily basis, the dispute means changing her schedule to make sure she gets to where she needs to be on time.
"I take the earlier bus now," Fray said.
"I don't take the bus that would get me to work right on time. I take the earlier one just in case I have to modify my plans."
The main sticking point of the labour dispute is wages: The union wants a three per cent raise in each of the next three years, and representatives are scheduled to sit down with the City of Winnipeg and a conciliator on May 19.
If a settlement isn't reached soon, the union could strike, shutting down buses across Winnipeg, excluding Handi-Transit.
The city declined to comment Friday.