01-24-2020, 02:10 PM
(01-24-2020, 01:47 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(01-24-2020, 01:36 PM)Rainrider22 Wrote: I dont know about both sides. The real issue is employee safety says the union head. They want to have barriers installed (which the region is working on) Then the next breath say they don't like being watched all the time on surveillance video. The same video that is there to both keep them safe and assist with capturing someone who cause harm or damage....which would hopefully lead to charges, which would hopefully lead to deterrence of an future safety concerns. To me the message is, we dont want to be watched by management.. The region came up with decent money and the union says it is not about money so I dont see why they are striking.
I don't know what the issue with the camera's are. It sounds like they object to the discpline program, which in my opinion, should be unrelated to the cameras, the cameras are unbiased witnesses, if the process is unfair to drivers, then the removal of witnesses won't solve that.
As for the barriers, I'm not in favour because I feel they make transit unfriendly to the users, but if the reality is we have violence on our buses, that's a shame, and maybe they're necessary, but I remember this came up years ago, why are we talking about it again? I've heard the region offered to install them over 3 years, that's absurd, they've already been piloted and tested, or at least they planned too...so why can't they be installed over the regular maintenance program...I assume our buses are maintained more frequently than every 3 years.
The discipline aspect also came up in the previous contract negotiations in 2017 (https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/safety-disc...-1.3349905). During those negotiations, it was revealed that drivers were being disciplined for hitting construction pylons and not reporting it, even if they didn't know they hit the pylons, as according to management it was "leaving the scene of a collision."