Transit users making plans as union, city launch day two of talks
Posted Jan 30, 2012 05:47:44 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The union representing Metro Transit workers will meet with city officials again for a second day of negotiating today, in hopes of avoiding a work stoppage on Thursday.
The two sides were were closeted for 10 hours on Sunday, and one senior union official says it’s a “good sign” that they’re still talking.
The workers rejected the latest offer from the city last week, with a 98 per cent majority, and have said they’ll be off the job if there’s no deal in place by the end of the day on Wednesday.
For some of HRM’s 96,000 transit users, a strike will be an inconvenience – for others, a major crisis.
Jane tells News 95.7 that for her, like many of the city’s seniors, the bus is her only transportation.
“I’m very, not upset, but I”m concerned about the bus strike, of course,” she said. “I live alone and I can’t afford taxis all the time.”
Jane says seniors aren’t the only ones who will be significantly affected by a transit strike, saying she remembered seeing students hitchike during the last Transit strike, in 1998.
Jackie, who has an hour-long bus commute every day, says she’s not the only one in her family who will have to find another way around town.
“It’s a bit of a juggling act right now,” she said. “I had to beg for a ride (to work,), so at this moment, I have a ride, but I laso have to deal with my daughter who goes to school at NSCC.”
Helen has a friend who weathered the recent transit strike in Ottawa by relying on the kindness of a stranger.
“It was a long transit strike, but she met someone at the bus stop who had a car, so she was able to carpool with him,” she said.
Transit workers and supporters held two rallies on Sunday, and have planned more for Thursday in the event of a strike.
Job security is a major sticking point for the unionized workers, who claim the municipality is moving towards privatizing parts of the public system.
