Cooler heads need to prevail in OC Transpo contract negotiations

Through the 2008-09 winter transit strike and ever since, citizens in Ottawa have been witness to the back-and-forth between OC Transpo and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) 279, which represents OC Transpo operators and mechanics, about (along with other issues) scheduling. OC Transpo General Manager Alain Mercier has a number of ideas which, by his numbers, would increase efficiency and improve service for Ottawa transit system; the ATU, led by current vice-president Mike Aldrich, thinks most of the changes will do the opposite, and also says they'll further poison the work environment at OC Transpo. For most citizens, it's a debate short on provable facts and high on rhetoric, which makes it all the more frustrating for most.

Last week in the Ottawa Citizen, Randall Denley waded into the debate, offering a column that indicated support for Mercier and management as the decision-makers. From his column:

Mayor Jim Watson said Monday he wanted to get the facts on the table as the city heads into contract negotiations so that “urban myths” weren’t allowed to persist. Good idea.

The problem with running an organization like OC Transpo is that every employee and bus rider fancies himself an expert because he knows something about some element of this complex service.

What is little appreciated is that the current Transpo management has brought rationality and a numbers-driven approach to running a bus company that used to be an amateur operation. Mercier won’t win any popularity contests, but most of what he does is soundly supported by numbers and analysis.

Unfortunately, numbers and analysis are never as compelling for an individual as his direct experience, however limited that might be.

Denley also spoke about a few other issues currently being debated between two sides. But through it all, Denley made one especially prescient point: No matter whether the ATU is in the right or the wrong, their attempts to gain publicity for the issues have for the most part backfired. The public hasn't been sympathetic to the concerns of drivers, and for the most part the perception--whether rightly or wrongly--is that operators are compensated well for their work, and if they are unhappy with what they get, there are many others prepared to step in and accept it (that was also the tone Denley ended his column on, as well: "OC Transpo who really think the job is terrible should quit and give the opportunity to someone who wants it."). That's a dangerous stance to take with any group of workers (imagine the experience that would be lost), but it seems a fairly common sentiment. The union lost the battle for public opinion in the last round of negotiations; they would do well to heed lessons learned and keep their tactics to the bargaining table, especially with a mayor who seems more willing to play fair this time around.

It does seem that the union realizes there are things they can do to improve their reputation among the public. On the OC Transpo LiveJournal, a hub dominated largely by operators, user mayorzero published an entry called "Stop The Whining", asking his fellow members to stop complaining to the media about their working conditions, pointing specifically to this letter published in the Citizen from a 30-year veteran of OC Transpo. Mayorzero speaks to Denley's column:

While most of Denley's column is complete and utter crap (as usual), he does make a number of good points too, and the union and membership should take note.

[...]

So please stop whining on Facebook, blogs, letters to the editor,
(especially) CFRA etc, etc. Every time somebody whines on behalf of the membership, the public and the majority of the media just bury our asses further and further.

All we should be hearing from the union right now is exactly what we are hearing from Jim Watson: "We will not be negotiating in public, we will bring the issues before our membership and will provide information at the appropriate time."

It would seem that new ATU president Garry Queale is handling things the right way: Say the right things about wanting to avoid a transit strike, issuing complaints through the appropriate agencies (like the Canada Industrial Relations Board, which was sent a complaint a few weeks ago) instead of through the media, and--basically--taking the high road in the negotiations. The city and OC Transpo has done a good job this time around keeping their tone civil.

But one thing that absolutely must change, if we're seriously going to see an improvement in relations? Regular citizens of Ottawa, the people who take the bus or even those who only pay taxes, need to show a little bit of respect and respectability here. ATU members are fighting to get a bit more money from you, yes, but they're also human beings, with families and lives. So treat them with the respect they deserve.

Everyone's talking about another OC Transpo strike

It seems like everyone's pretty pessimistic about the possibility of avoiding a transit strike during this year's negotiations between OC Transpo and the City of Ottawa. Considering the virulent back-and-forth between both sides through the last one, people can probably be forgiven for their cynicism.

Although the possibility of a strike has been in everyone's mind for quite a few weeks, it really took off when former mayor Larry O'Brien penned a guest column for the Ottawa Citizen suggesting that we're headed down the same road as we were last time. David Reevely pointed out a few falsehoods in O'Brien's op/ed on the Greater Ottawa blog, but even if the factors O'Brien pointed to are flawed, the fact that some of the same issues which caused the last transit strike remain unsolved is undeniable.

On the plus side, no one wants a transit strike. Or at least both sides say they want to avoid one. From the city's perspective, a strike would be disastrous, and would likely be something saddled on mayor Jim Watson--whether it's fair or not--after he promised to work on repairing strained relations with OC Transpo. Unions never really want to go on strike, but it is one of few options available to them in negotiation; still, with the last strike so fresh in their minds, you've got to think the ATU 279 are especially dreading the possibility--their new president, Garry Queale, said in one of his first interviews that he's not in favour of a strike (although his predecessor, Mike Aldrich, said the same thing weeks before walking away from negotiations).

If you think Toronto's recent advances towards an essential service designation for the TTC might pave the way for a similar one in Ottawa, don't count on it. Neither the city nor the union are in favour of the designation, and also anything in Ottawa would have to go through the federal government (which in the past had no interest) rather than the provincial.

So the negotiators from the city and the union will have to figure it out themselves. Well, once they get back to negotiating...

Transit union has a new president

As you might have seen reported in most Ottawa news media, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) local 279 elected a new president last week. The new boss is Garry Queale, a longtime driver and dispatcher for OC Transpo, and his first comments should be welcome: "I want to negotiate a fair deal for our members, and not do it through the TV and radio and newspapers."

His full (and brief) comment, from the Ottawa Citizen:

"My priority is to work within the membership to boost morale and work with the city together, and not through the media," said Queale, a longtime dispatcher with OC Transpo. "We’ve been through lots of battles and I want to negotiate a fair deal for our members, and not do it through the TV and radio and newspapers. I know Mayor Jim Watson; I’m sure I can work with him."

The last president of the ATU 279 was certainly commendable for the passion with which he fought for his union, but came under fire for his unapologetic comments in the media. And acting president Mike Aldrich, who served while Cornellier he was in poor health and since his mid-January passing, was no stranger to the media, and routinely offered his comments whenever asked--whether the subject was his membership, or simply OC Transpo as a whole.

Citizens and ATU members are both likely relieved to see someone who, at least initially, is more interested in negotiating with the city rather than negotiating through the media. The toxic atmosphere through 2008-09 transit strike was contributed to by poor choices on both sides, and poor decisions made by both Cornellier and former mayor Larry O'Brien in particular. Hopefully in this round of negotiations, with the sides led by quieter leaders Queale and Watson, we'll see a more amicable resolution.

Angry driver gives OC Transpo a bad name

It seems like everyone is talking about the video that's surfaced recently of an OC Transpo operator absolutely ripping in to a rider on his bus, not just laying down some ridiculous personal insults but unleashing some pretty ugly profanity (all within earshot of young kids, no less). Some have come to the defence of the operator in question, including transit commission chair Diane Deans and acting ATU 279 president Mike Aldrich, stating that without knowing the full context of the event, there can't be conclusions drawn. I take issue with that, because no matter the context, the operator acted unprofessionally and disrespectfully. The rider, it would seem, did the same, but the rider isn't an employee of OC Transpo, so he isn't expected to uphold the service standards. Anyone who's worked in the service industry knows that customers can be disrespectful; that doesn't give you license to go off the handle on them.

But what I really take issue with is the reputation this (very isolated) incident gives OC Transpo operators. It's a sad reality, but negative press like this gets a lot more pick-up than positive press; already, this relatively minor story has received more mileage than the recent one of Peter Paquette, the OC Transpo driver who heroically stopped his bus to run into a burning house and help evacuate three people who were inside. In fact, in my experience, the friendly (or at least neutral) bus operators outnumber the surly (or downright disrespectful) ones by a decent margin.

The problem with this driver's actions, though, is not just that it's disrespectful to that individual rider, but it also gives the impression that disrespectful drivers are the norm, rather than the exception.

Outsourcing an issue between city, union

One issue that didn't get as much coverage in the winter transit strike of 2008-09 but remains a significant one is the outsourcing of labour at OC Transpo. The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) local 279, representing operators, obviously doesn't like the idea, but the city maintained that it was something they could use to keep operating costs lower. It's become an issue once again, according to 580 CFRA:

The vice president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Mike Aldrich says safety inspections for busses are being delayed because OC Transpo management didn't submit the required paperwork in time.

Mike Aldrich says it means the work - normally done by union members - is being outsourced to commercial garages in the city.

"It's just another way of somebody dropping the ball in management," says Aldrich. "Someone has got to be accountable for this."

Relations between the two sides seem to be improving, but this is one issue which will certainly continue to come up in the ongoing negotiations between the two sides.

A great new year's resolution: Avoid a transit strike

According to a report from 580 CFRA, that's exactly what at least one of the parties involved has resolved to do.

The head of the union representing OC Transpo drivers, dispatchers and mechanics is telling commuters not to put "too much worry" into the threat of a transit strike.

Contract negotiations between OC Transpo and the Amalgamated Transit Union will ramp up in January.

ATU Acting President Mike Aldrich tells CFRA News his New Year's resolution is to ensure a bus strike is not repeated.

So that's a plus. Because if there's one thing I'd rather not blog about in this year, it's labour strife at OC Transpo.

A change of tone between the OC Transpo and the union

Well this is a refreshing dose of positive news.

Less than a week ago, I posted about early jockeying between the city and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) 279 as the two sides were preparing to negotiate an extension to their agreement to keep OC Transpo buses running. It seemed the hostility between the two sides hadn't faded at all, and didn't bode well for negotiations.

But now, things seem to be a little different. Mayor Jim Watson met with acting president of the ATU 279 Mike Aldrich on Monday to discuss the future of Ottawa public transit (and preventing another transit strike), and Transit Commission acting chair Diane Deans is to meet with Aldrich on Tuesday for the same thing. The two had earlier said their interest was in smoothing relations between OC Transpo and the union, but hadn't done anything to put substance behind their words; opening up communication is a good place to start.

But it takes two sides to negotiate, and it looks like Aldrich is ready to do so now, too. On Monday, in an interview with the Ottawa Sun, Aldrich seemed to be moving forward with the negotiations:

Aldrich said he’s “looking forward” to the upcoming negotiations and hinted that things will be different with the ATU now under his leadership and not that of former president Andre Cornellier.

“It will be a whole new way of negotiating. We’re going to get rid of the adversarial attitude and get along. We (the ATU and the city) want to have a world-class transit system,” he said.

“This is the public’s transit system and I don’t want to use the public as pawns, we had 54 days of that s**t. It’s the last thing we want.”

There's some passion there, and it's a passion to find a proper agreement before push comes to shove and a strike seems inevitable. All of a sudden, I'm fairly optimistic these two sides can figure this thing out.

Jockeying starts early for city, union in negotiations

Although the contract between the Amalgamated Transit Union 279 and OC Transpo doesn't expire until March 2011, and with the winter 2008-09 53-day transit strike still fresh in our minds, both sides of the labour agreement have already started posturing to gain advantage in the upcoming labour talks.

Through his mayoral campaign and since, mayor Jim Watson has been stating his intention to mend the relationship between the city and the union; on the day she was selected as chair of the transit commission, Gloucester-Southgate Councillor Diane Deans talked to CTV Ottawa about "a new era of co-operation" between the two sides. Although it's still very early in their respective mandates (Deans was just approved as chair of the commission yesterday), neither has done much, if anything, in the way of tangible action to change anything.

Meanwhile, OC Transpo general manager Alain Mercier has initiated a survey of workers to get to the bottom of the seemingly ever-present low morale issues at OC Transpo--a survey which, according to acting president of the ATU 279 Mike Aldrich, is identical to one which was done five years ago, as reported by the Ottawa Citizen. Aldrich said issues are the same as were determined in the previous survey--"running times, scheduling and poor morale throughout the company"--and didn't approve sending the survey out.

On the other side, the ATU 279 leadership is using some more strongly-armed tactics, putting pressure on the city to make changes even before the union will agree to come to the table. Aldrich has complained that the negotiating team--led by Mercier--is the same as it was during the last negotiation, and that he wants to see some "changes" before proceeding with negotiations. From the CBC:

"We have the same players negotiating the same proposals," said Aldrich, referring to the 51-day strike in 2008-09 that shut down buses in the city.

"We know what happened last time. I'm not interested in going down that road."

[...]

"One of [Watson's] campaign promises was to repair the poisoned atmosphere at OC Transpo but so far nothing has been fixed," Aldrich said. "So until we see some changes, or improvements, we'll wait."

Although posturing such as this isn't really uncommon in labour discussions, it's still a little unsettling to hear that issues remain, and that these issues are enough to delay advance negotiations. On the plus side, both sides have said they want to avoid a strike; Aldrich told the CBC that there is "no way the union wants a strike".

How bad are relations between OC Transpo and its union?

Late last week, a possible deal between OC Transpo and its drivers was rejected by the drivers' union. It was disappointing to see the issue continue to go on unresolved, but the motion seemed to point to one positive fact: Communication between the two sides is ongoing. Given the intense negativity leading up to, during, and since the 2008-09 transit strike, any communication must be a good thing.

Right?

Hopefully. But as David Reevely points out in his latest column at Greater Ottawa, the ATU 279 membership, it appears, is "militant". With that in mind, who knows whether or not the results of these votes are true disagreement with the agreement put forward, or just rejected out of spite? From Reevely's blog:

"The dangerous problem I see isn't that the OC Transpo union members are militant. They were pretty badly put upon at the time of the last strike, by managers who wanted to take away an extremely important element in their contract with apparently no understanding of why it was there in the first place (letting drivers, in particular, have considerable control over their own work schedules was a key move in an effort to detoxify the OC Transpo workplace after the deadly Pierre Lebrun shootings a decade ago). I can see where the militancy comes from, and anyway, tough but skilled managers can deal with a militant union membership in a non-destructive fashion. They did it after the shootings, for example."

Leading up to the vote, on the OC Transpo livejournal, user roadwarrier came out in support of the agreement. Roadwarrier is one of the more vocal operators on the LiveJournal, and he tried to convince his brothers and sisters why it wasn't such a bad deal--or at least to explain why he was voting yes.

"Well gang, I was one of the big naysayers, no at any cost, with a serious vendetta against management. Quite frankly, I walked into the meeting ready to vote this thursday, ready to vote no at any cost, no matter how good the offer was.

"And I've done a 180. The executive has worked very hard to get some strong language and some real goodies for us. Stuff that's going to cost the company a lot of money and that really benefits us. Stuff that wasn't on the table when we walked and stuff that was on the table. At the end of the day, my gut tells me that this is a very good offer and the only reason the offer is so good is that the city knows they can't keep going with the way it is."

Since roadwarrier's post, a series of follow-up threads were posted leading up to the vote: Titles such as "NOT SUCH A GREAT DEAL", "Vague language in Contract - vote NO unless rectified", "VOTE NO! VOTE NO! VOTE NO! VOTE NO! VOTE NO! VOTE NO! VOTE NO! VOTE NO! VOTE NO!", "Vote No", and "Why I've decided to vote no" were all put up. They acknowledged "minor improvements" for drivers, but cautioned union members to "think worst case scenario" [sic]; it seems the relationship is so toxic, the union is assuming managers are trying to pull one over on them, and will be taking a mile for every inch given.

And now, interim union leader Mike Aldrich has taken issue with explanations made by OC Transpo general manager Alain Mercier about service issues. Rather than Mercier's excuses of vacationing drivers, Aldrich said that service problems that have come up through the summer had more to do with these 'scheduling issues' that continue to elude proper, concise explanation.

So we've got a union head who seems open to compromise (Aldrich) standing in for a much more confrontational union leader (Andre Cornellier, who's taken personal leave) in leading a group of militant employees (the ATU 279) to negotiate with a manager who's done little to befriend the union, and a fair bit to irk them (Mercier)--and who, it should be noted, is supported by a mayor who seems enemy number one to the union (Larry O'Brien)--to come to an agreement on issues few, if any, truly understand and may or may not actually materialize into 'operational efficiencies' (scheduling).

Brace yourselves. The end seems far off.

Scheduling 'efficiencies' proving elusive

Remember how one of the most contentious issues during the city's winter 2009 transit strike was scheduling, in an effort to reduce overtime and other avoidable labour costs? According to the Amalgamated Transit Union local 279, the new scheduling format isn't really working as well as had been anticipated.

From CTV Ottawa:

The schedule took effect last month, and the transit union says shifts aren't being filled, which is affecting service and driver morale. Scheduling was also the main reason for the 53-day transit strike.

"A lot of guys are refusing overtime because of their frustration, and a way to show their frustration is to stop working overtime," said Mike Aldrich, the transit union vice president.

On the other hand, Transit Committee chair and mayoral candidate Alex Cullen points out that the scheduling is working fine--and that the vast majority of routes are run on time.

From 580 CFRA:

The chair of Ottawa's Transit Committee insists the new scheduling system for OC Transpo operators will allow the city to introduce transit service at a lower cost in the future.

[...]

Cullen says over 99 per cent of OC Transpo's nine-thousand trips a day go as scheduled.

It doesn't seem surprising that a scheduling system isn't working to full effect if certain operators are intentionally obstructing the effectiveness of the scheduling system by not showing up for shifts, which ATU 279 vice-president Aldrich suggests. After the long and unforgiving winter strike, though, it's similarly not surprising that some operators are lashing out against what they see as an inequitable measure.

Still, the key point in the 52-day strike was scheduling, and we have yet to see any proof of those oft-cited 'efficiencies' that were apparently the basis for the City's unrelenting stance. It's to be expected that there will be some adjustment period before the savings start to appear, but until they do, the strike appears more and more like a strikeout for the city.