Council decision on day after ratification leaves bad taste in union’s mouth
The recent recession is at the forefront of another bad faith accusation in labour relations.
City bus drivers in Guelph are accusing the city of bargaining in bad faith during recent negotiations on a three-year contract.
During talks, the Amalgamated Transit Union sought assurances there would be no service reductions this summer as there were last year. In 2010, summer service was cut from every 20 minutes to 30 minutes for June, July and August. As a result, more than 20 drivers were without work for several months.
“One of our focuses when we started was no more layoffs,” says ATU Local 1189 president Gary Daters. “We were upset with what happened last year. It was the first time our members had ever been temporarily laid off.”
Daters says city negotiators assured the union “there would be no layoffs” and that the service change last summer was a one-time deal.
Members ratified the contract January 30. The next day, the city unveiled the proposed 2011 operating budget which included summer service reductions, no buses on Sunday and fare increases.
“We came to the table with what we felt was an honest agenda,” says Daters. “They told us later the negotiating team didn’t know. There has been a lot of pussy-footing around.”
The city’s executive director of HR and legal services, Mark Amorosi, says the situation is slightly more complicated.
At the height of the recession, the city was planning for the 2010 budget. One recessionary measure included a combination of pay cuts and forced time off. Another was to reduce the summer bus schedule. However, unlike the other measures, this was a permanent change and one that only city council can now reverse.
It would not have become an issue had the city’s new bus terminal been ready by this spring, since the entire transit strategy was being overhauled as a result, and it does not include summer service reductions.
Instead, Amorosi says the terminal — a public works project — will not be completed until fall. That delay means the city is sticking to the former schedule, including the summer service reduction, until then.
“As time passed, it became the perfect storm of events,” he says. “Many factors impacted on the negotiations.”
Amorosi says negotiators were honest when they told the ATU there would be no layoffs.
“During the bargaining process they asked, ‘Are there going to be any layoffs due to the transit growth strategy?’” he says. “At that point, the terminal was due to be completed in May of this year and the schedule change would have been redundant.”
The union charges this is another case of an employer using the recent recession to gain an advantage, according to Daters.
“It’s a different environment now,” he says. “And it makes the members question me as well as management when something like this happens.”
The ATU recently made a presentation before council, appealing for the cancellation of the summer service reduction. Amorosi says the city has also presented council the option of restoring summer service, a move that would cost about $260,000.
But he says it’s ultimately council’s decision, which underlines the sometimes difficult spot city negotiators find themselves in.
“We’re accountable to a board — the council. We can only put it before council and let the process work itself out,” says Amorosi.
