How do we fix whats wrong with transit in Hamilton?

Are buses sitting empty in the garage when they should be out picking up passengers? When they are on
the road, are buses actually running on schedule? Do the schedules we have match the schedules riders
need? Are buses traveling long distances with few or no passengers on board? Are management and
union members collaborating to ensure the system runs safely and effectively? Is ridership increasing or
decreasing? Is the system affordable, safe and reliable for riders? Is it adequately funded to provide
quality service?

These are the questions we ask ourselves when evaluating a transit system. By many of these indicators,
HSR is falling short, and the public is understandably losing faith as a result.

Surprisingly, media, elected officials and HSR bosses have all led the public to believe that managing
Hamiltons transit system is not the responsibility of management, but of frontline bus operators,
mechanics, administration and support staff. Reading these reports, you would think the much-
celebrated management team created by the current Director of HSR has no power to improve on-time
performance.

The root of HSRs failure to meet the public demands is actually much simpler: they are not hiring
enough operators. Management wants to focus on absenteeism to explain this. Yet, if every single
operator who is off sick, on vacation, on WSIB, or on emergency leave were to show up and work 40 to
50 hours per week, HSR still wouldnt have enough staff to fill all the work on the schedule.

To compensate for this, HSRs Management coerces operators to work overtime, up to 60 sometimes as
high as 68 hours per week. When that hasnt filled all the service gaps, Management begins rejecting all
requests for time off to attend weddings, funerals, family commitments, medical appointments - even
necessary cancer treatment.

Operators are finishing their shifts with no one at the end of the line to take over their bus and are
forced to stay at work, sometimes hours longer. We are forced to choose on the spot which obligations -
to our passengers, to our employer, to our families - ranks first on that particular day. Like any good
transit professional, of course, we try to do all three. That results in overworked operators prone to
stress, burnout, injury, illness, and fatigue-related errors.

It is any wonder, then, that more operators are calling off sick or refusing overtime? It is the logical
outcome of this incompetent Directors repeated refusal to address a litany of management-created
issues that undermine our transit system, adequate staffing especially.
What have we been doing?

Transit workers often feel they could manage a system better than the people in charge, usually
experts with no experience in any of the jobs theyre overseeing. But in our system of labour law,
management has the sole right to manage, even if that means managing it into the ground. ATU 107,
however, is not interested in standing idly by and allowing this HSR Director to do that. Instead, we get
up every day and pull together to move our city where it needs to go, no matter how many obstacles
and excuses management puts in our way.

During the summer, our union agreed to increase the allowable overtime that an operator could work to
68 hours per week. During special events in the city, our operators have stayed on the bus beyond the
end of their shift to make sure you got home safely. Everyday, operators have consistently agreed to
work overtime to keep this system running.

This week, at the request of HSR management, we are again agreeing to this stopgap band aid solution
and we know that our members will step up to fill this work. But this is not a safe or sustainable way to
run a transit system, and it never has been.

This management will continue to work our operators into the ground, reject requests for time off and
treat transit riders with disrespect, all while pretending that it isnt their job to manage transit. This also
explains the inexplicable aversion some in management have to HSR operating the LRT. They simply do
not want the cumbersome burden to manage transit. So, we have a solution to offer.

Whats the solution?

The City of Hamilton, the Province of Ontario, our riders and ATU 107 are all working toward a world-
class transit system.

There is no room in such a high-quality, publicly-operated transit system for people who dont want to
do their job. Thus, the best first step toward our goal is for the City of Hamilton to remove this
incompetent management team, starting with the director, and hire a world-class director of transit
who wants to see HSR run on time, grow, and thrive.

Hire a transit director who is committed and has the skills necessary to build a comprehensive transit
system, who is committed to respecting the people who operate and ride transit, and, most importantly,
who is committed to taking ownership of the quality of service being delivered, instead of punishing the
public and the front-line workers for their own lack of leadership.

Start fixing the HSR by fixing the management. In the meantime, we will continue to fight for a world
class public transit system and well continue to do our job, so you can get to yours.