These topics have come up today from several directions, so I want to touch on some things going on with the Edmonton Transit Service, issues which are all being addressed by their union, ATU local 569 (Amalgamated Transit Union).
First off, under ministerial directive by the UCP's Public Safety Minister, Mike Ellis, the city is being told to hand over their Transit Peace Officers to the Edmonton Police Service to tackle fentanyl. Not only is this FAR outside of the duties they signed up for, but this kind of police work will ruin our transit officers in their mental capacity to peacefully deal with the public on a daily basis, training them to work through prejudice, profiling, discrimination, and violence. Public transit needs to remain safe for our vulnerable communities, and this move by the Alberta government will put them at risk.
https://atu569.ca/is-eps-running-the-peace-officers/
The ATU is currently in bargaining with the city, and 98% of members who voted said they are ready to strike. That accounts for about 70% of the total membership. If mediation fails, transit will strike.
They won't strike until mediation fails, but that means they're past the point where negotiations have stalled. Their collective agreement expired over a year ago, and the ATU had to take the city to the Labour Relations Board to get them to the table.
Over the past many years, I have overheard many complaints from ETS drivers, and seen how it has affected their work and the effects it has on the public. Although technically the negotiations are stalled on wage discrepancies, but that's all tied in with the work required. Foremost on complaints I've heard are impossible schedules to keep, making the buses "always late", giving the drivers no time for breaks, and causing them to rush and speed.
One of the union's proposals included the conversion of CSOs (Community Service Operators) to Transit Operators. That would increase staffing for drivers, and alleviate a lot of these problems. At the cost of more staffing expenses, of course.
https://atu569.ca/strike-ready/
My family and I are continuing to see issues arise from pressured transit drivers. In my opinion, I feel they need to be better informed about their labour rights, and refuse unsafe mandates. If they feel pressured with their schedule then rather than rushing on the road and putting the public in danger, they should be taking grievances to their union representative, and quiet quitting when they feel under pressure. That would show solidarity and force collective action on their employer.
That's just my thought, but without question our transit system is grossly underfunded, and that needs to change! The better we make our transit system, the more use it will see, and that saves money for ALL TAXPAYERS IN EDMONTON.
Nearly all the infrastructure costs for transportation in Edmonton arises from the rampant dependency on automobiles, and at the same time most of the greatest dangers from living in the city arise from the same dependency, and the lack of safe infrastructure for any other transportation.
The more people feel safe and accommodated to use transit, the less we have to pay for people's entitlement to drive around in grossly inefficient automobiles which cost taxpayers billions to support, and causes great traffic congestion, making it difficult for people to move around the city and blocking essential logistics like trucking and emergency services (and of course, efficient mass transit).
Being accommodated by transit includes sufficient service to get them to their destinations reliably and efficiently, along with personal safety and accessibility concerns. These personal safety concerns disappear on their own through increased usage of transit though. North America, the most transit-adverse space in the world, is unique in its prejudice against transit as "unsafe due to undesirables". Where transit is accessible and used, this is not a concern. It is our underfunding of transit as a service and our creation of a transit-adverse culture, which has created the problem of safety on transit.
So I beg the City of Edmonton. Fund transit service, fund transit staffing, pay their damn wages, open the budget, and make this city a SAFE place for everyone.
