Transit union calls on city to use funds to save jobs
Calgary’s transit union is going on the offensive in an effort to convince city council to save 80 jobs from being outsourced to help trim the department’s budget.
Last June, an independent auditor suggested the city could save $2.7 million by farming out transit janitorial and maintenance jobs to the private sector, part of a suite of proposals in a zero-based budget review aiming to reduce transit’s budget by $9.2 million.
But Amalgamated Transit Union 583 thinks the scheme to save a bit of money could put CTrain users in peril, as contract workers would lack the training and drive that unionized workers, some who’ve loyally served the city for more than a decade, can provide.
“Since they’ve announced those 80 positions could be going, many members have already left for other positions, so some (CTrain) stations are being cleaned already by outsourced cleaners,” said Neil McKinnon, the union’s executive vice-president.
“Unfortunately, some of them don’t know about our safety issues and we’ve had at least two documented cases last week of snow being swept from the platforms into the windshield of incoming trains, blinding the drivers.
“Somebody is going to get hurt by this.”
The union has launched an ad campaign and website with a petition (rainydayishere.com), calling on the city to tap into its fiscal stability reserve, its so-called rainy-day fund, which currently sits at $544 million, to save the jobs. McKinnon said the union has already been streamlining the service, offering up hundreds of thousands in savings, and said it may even be able to save more if the city were to share the full findings of its zero-based budget review.
We’ve had at least two documented cases last week of snow being swept from the platforms into the windshield of incoming trains, blinding the drivers.
McKinnon noted this wouldn’t be the first time the city outsourced transit jobs, with the responsibility for cleaning bus shelters contracted out nearly two decades ago, a move he said has resulted in a reduced level of service.
“We have seen outsourcing in the past and I don’t think it’s been very effective,” he said, noting transit drivers often have to clean the shelters themselves after discovering overflowing garbage cans.
But Coun. Ward Sutherland, vicechair of the city’s finance committee, said the argument that contract employees would perform an inferior job compared to their union counterparts is disingenuous.
“If the union doesn’t like it they should compete to meet the same budget level,” he said.
“It’s not an excuse to say just because they’ve been doing it before they can do a better job than contract workers — I don’t think that’s true.
“That’s just the standard rhetoric for unions.”
Sutherland said he believes other city departments should look to the private sector in some areas, including waste pickup, which he believes could see about a third of the service privatized to create competition to get the best value for the taxpayer.
City council in June accepted the cost-cutting measures for transit, but agreed to allow stakeholders time to unearth alternative savings. Councillors also agreed to examine if the city has found any savings through contracting out services in the past, with a report set to come before the finance committee by the second quarter of 2017.