Covid 19

Dear Brother and Sisters,

Out of the safety and concerns of our membership, the Union with approval of its Executive Board and with the recommendation of the International President has decided to cancel our regular scheduled general membership union meetings in July/August 2020.
In Solidarity
Your Executive Board
 

We had 8 refusals to do unsafe work, 5 of those have been resolved by removing the vinyl barrier and wearing a face mask and face shield. 2 of those are awaiting medical information and the last one went to the OHS Committee for a decision, the minutes should be out tomorrow with the official decision.

As most of you know the vinyl barrier obstructs your vision on the right passenger side door and mirror, supervisors have been out telling operators that come tomorrow morning if you cant see through your right passenger side to call 104 and they will come out and do the adjusting for you, we have asked 104 and they have not yet been given this information. If you do call 104 please be patient with them these are our brothers and sisters they are just doing as directed, if they don't they could be disciplined for insubordination.

The Shower Curtain Fiasco Continues....

Today we spoke with management and told them that the current set up is just not going to work, and that going around telling our members that we agreed to what they have in the buses needs to stop immediately because what we agreed to is the prototype that had great coverage and protection.

An operator came up with a solution that we met with management and showed them the idea...

In regard to the Vinyl Barriers better known as the “shower curtains”

Atu drove the bus that had a prototype innstalled in it, the vinyl barrier covered the entire drivers compartment and you were able to see the mirror with no issues, during this test drive Atu made the comment that we have several different driver compartment setups and there will have to be different measurements taken for all the different styles we have, the response was yes that’s the plan.

Things are continuing on the right trend of flattening the curve, we just need to keep going in this direction!

We went out and took a look at what the city installed in the buses, this is definitely not the same quality and thickness of the vinyl barrier that we tested out a few weeks ago, we asked the city to confirm what they’re installing is what we tested and that we’re running out of time to get this sorted out, thanks everyone for your patience on this issue.

Today a report went to council to start front door loading, collecting fares and increasing loads from 9 plus the operator to 14 plus the operator, this was put together to get inline with the provinces announcement of putting phase 3 in place on June 8th.

We spoke with councillors prior to the council meeting this morning giving our concerns in regard to the the proposed plan including the vinyl barriers, passengers wearing masks, front door loading and collecting fares.

The cases seem to be slowly going down even in the north that’s great news!

Today we were told that City Council will be having an emergency meeting potentially on Wednesday, a report will be going to council with some recommendations from transit, this could include front door loading, fare collection, mask required and increasing loads. I have not seen this report as of yet.

What’s everyone’s opinion on going to front door loading and fare collection with the vinyl barrier?

What’s your opinion on no mask no ride?