Quote:
Originally Posted by eternallyme
They should play hardball there. Declare them an essential service and make it impossible by legislation for them to strike. Otherwise, pull a Ronald Reagan and fire them all the next time they strike, replace them by new workers willing to work and get service back immediately.
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You don't really get it, do you? There aren't all that many people around who can quickly replace them. OC Transpo also suffers from high turnover and burnout of new employees, so one can imagine that in a strike situation it would be even worse.
In that last episode OC management tried to force the drivers to eat an increase in the work day spread from the national norm of 12 hours to an unprecedented 13.5 hours. When a strike is only over wages and benefits, unions usually crack before long but when you threaten working conditions, especially things that will affect the effective length of the work day, they will bring you to your knees if they have to, and that's just what they did. As others have written, the union membership knows a lot more about our transit system than does management or us. Our crazy BRT system requires such large numbers of operators to work crazy hours that OC Transpo management is under pressure to force more out of workers; the union couldn't let them start down that path because it just becomes a death spiral - worsening conditions lead to higher turnover and fewer available drivers which in turn leads to worsening conditions for those who remain.
OC Transpo should be looking to reducing its turnover and general morale problems. Until they do, I can't blame the union membership for keeping the strike option.