Thursday, January 15, 2009

Union may target students, Para Transpo UPDATED

The Ottawa Sun reports this morning that ATU 279 president Andre Cornellier is not ruling out picketing any private shuttles that accept city funding or the expanded Para Transpo service if it is staffed by new, non-unionized workers.
In a letter to the city's post-secondary schools, Cornellier warned of picketing at both pick-up and drop-off locations should the schools run their shuttles with the help of cash from the city. He said the arrangement would be "tantamount to the use of scab labour" and that "our members will not stand by and let the city pay for their work to be done by other companies."
And on Para Transpo:
"It is very disappointing that the City of Ottawa has chosen to hire scab labour during this strike. Instead of bargaining with us to find ways to resolve this strike, Mayor O'Brien seems determined to create even more disruptions for the people of this city," Cornellier said yesterday in a press release.
UPDATE: The Citizen reports that Para Transpo will not be picketed, and university shuttles will not likely be picketed.

h/t David Reevely, who passed this along to TransitOttawa.ca's ongoing liveblog

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Then the union can rot in hell.

Milan said...

Is scab labour actually illegal?

If not, the city should definitely use some, especially to help those with physical disabilities.

Anonymous said...

No, replacement, or "scab" labour is not illegal. Some CBAs have articles which limit what other permanent employees can do, but not what temporary workers cna. Though in Quebec and BC there is anti-scab laws.

Anonymous said...

Picketing students sucks. Picketing Para Transpo is beyond a really asshole-move.

MG said...

I think this just shows the unions attitude towards it's users. The students aren't using these shuttles to go out drinking at night. They are using them to get to classes that they have paid thousands of dollars for.

And picketing Para Transpo is just pathetic. Considering the weather it's hard enough for me to have to walk anywhere(not that I do I drive) I can't imagine what it would be like if I had mobility issues.

The unions approch to this seems to be "If we don't get what we want, then everyone must suffer." which is playing into the cities hand because everyone is against the union which doesn't care about what it's doing to the city.

Anonymous said...

There is no end how low ATU can go, after they picketed students on their way to exams and tried to picket the Junior Hockey.

Picketing Para Transpo? What human scum ATU really is!

Anonymous said...

Find out to how ATU has abused the system for past 12 years:

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2009/01/15/8037401.html

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