Councillors explain dissenting contract votes
Posted Mar 14, 2012 10:07:20 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The deal which has put an end to the six-week-long Metro Transit strike did not get support from three councillors during the ratification vote Tuesday night.
Amalgamated Transit Union members voted 88 per cent in favour of the deal just hours before Halifax Regional Council followed suit with a 19-2 vote in favour of ratification.
Coun. Sue Uteck (Northwest Arm-South End) walked out of the meeting to protest the meeting being held behind closed doors and the lack of information being released to the public.
“Basically you were there just as a puppet to ratify something,” Uteck told News 95.7 Wednesday morning. “The union received the deal at 10 a.m. I think council should have received the deal the previous day and allowed us or to ratify it and to make some changes.”
Uteck says she has “fundamental differences” with the deal which was presented to the ATU. She points to what she calls “cafeteria style” shift picking which drivers are still allowed to do for six shifts out of the year. She also takes issue with the spare board and the $4,000 lump-sum payment to drivers.
While Uteck did not vote, her colleagues, Councillors Darren Fisher (East Dartmouth-The Lakes) and David Hendsbee (Preston-Lawrencetown-Chezzetcook), voted against the deal.
Hendsbee said the concessions the city made on rostering will not allow management to manage effectively.
He said the city will generate up to three schedules trying to find one that works for the union, while the union has veto power.
“Basically the union has three kicks at the can to get the scheduling that they like for their membership,” Hendsbee told Maritime Morning.
