Ottawa councillor slams city's transit bargaining team, mayor
City solicitor advises against meeting between union and city council
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 | 4:54 PM ET
CBC News
Coun. Clive Doucet said he wants all the transit costs saved by the city during the strike to go back into free transit once the conflict ends. (CBC)The City of Ottawa's current bargaining team is "out of touch" with what is needed to solve the 35-day transit strike and should be replaced immediately, says a councillor.
Coun. Clive Doucet broke ranks with the mayor and city council Tuesday after a mediator failed to get the two sides back to the table.
"Both sides are frozen in their corners, nothing is moving forward and the city is suffering," he told CBC's All in a Day Tuesday afternoon. "I think we have to start with getting new blood on the negotiation team. Clearly, these fellows, the people who are doing it now are out of touch with where the drivers are and what ... solution is needed."
The negotiation team includes OC Transpo's general manager Alain Mercier, as well as two of the city's senior labour relations specialists.
Mayor Larry O'Brien is the city's official spokesperson on the transit strike and has said repeatedly that city council is united behind him.
But Doucet made clear that he disagrees with the city's approach.
"We're allowing that whole [transit] service to just die on the vine for now well over a month for what? A $3.4-million scheduling dispute — I mean, that's close to irresponsible."
Mayor 'badly qualified': Doucet
Earlier in the day, Doucet had said he thinks O'Brien is "badly qualified" to handle the dispute.
"He comes out of the private sector, he's never worked in a unionized environment before, he's never worked in the public sector environment before," he said. "We've got someone who not only is a politician but clearly maladapted to the situation he finds himself in."
While O'Brien isn't on the negotiation team, his office is briefed daily on its progress, as are the city's general manager Kent Kirkpatrick and deputy city managers.
Doucet said he felt it was necessary to break his silence because of the hardship caused to the city, and the betrayal it represents after people were encouraged to use public transit to reduce traffic and pollution.
He added that while the union only has a responsibility to its members, the city has a responsibility to all 850,000 of its residents.
Once the strike is over, it will have to work hard to woo transit users back, Doucet said.
"And I'd like to see all of the money basically going into making sure we get as many free weeks of transit as possible so that the city does not really receive any unintended benefit from this strike."
Doucet said he will bring forward a motion at Wednesday's city council meeting requiring all the savings from the strike to go into free transit service once the strike is over.
No negotiations planned
Ottawa's striking transit union said Tuesday it has no plans to get back to the table after meeting with a federal mediator.
The city has not provided enough room for movement and the two sides aren't getting back together just to move furniture around the room, Randy Graham, international vice-president for the Amalgamated Transit Union said Tuesday.
Graham told CBC News that the union met with a federal mediator for an hour Tuesday morning, a day after the mediator sat down with city officials.
The mayor's office said Tuesday that the city is not commenting because the mediator asked councillors not to speak publicly about the state of negotiations.
A day earlier, striking transit workers had requested a meeting directly with Ottawa city council to discuss scheduling, the main issue behind the strike.
The union wants to highlight for councillors the repercussions of the scheduling system proposed by the city, said Farhad Abesteh, a member of the executive board for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279, in a letter Monday.
"The system is a complex one and we are concerned that the impact of the proposed system has not been sufficiently canvassed with council," the letter said.
Abesteh and Craig Watson, both official scheduling representatives for the union, told reporters Monday that they have now been appointed by president Andre Cornellier as spokesmen to represent the union's views on scheduling.
Union 'tired of being beaten up' by public
Watson said the union is "tired of being beaten up" by the public and feels it is important to get its information out.
City solicitor Rick O'Connor responded to the union's letter with a memo to councillors suggesting city council should not agree to the request.
He reminded them that council has agreed council will "speak with one voice" to the union via Mayor Larry O'Brien.
"I believe that either individual meetings or negotiating on the floor of council would be counter to existing direction and best labour negotiating practices," O'Connor said, adding that he is asking legal counsel to determine whether the letter from the union constitutes an "unfair labour practice" under the Canada Labour Code.
The union represents around 2,300 drivers, dispatchers and maintenance staff for OC Transpo, the city-run and city-owned transit company, who have been on strike since Dec. 10.
On Jan. 8, the union voted 75 per cent against the city's latest offer, after being ordered to vote by the federal labour minister at the request of the City of Ottawa.
The city's offer included a new scheduling system. In order to accommodate the increased ridership during the morning and afternoon rush, many drivers work split shifts, comprising several hours of work in the morning followed by a break and then several more hours of work in the afternoon. Under the current system, drivers choose the morning and afternoon shifts separately.
Under the proposed system, the city pairs the morning and afternoon shifts together, and they can be spread over up to 13.5 hours. In both systems, drivers with higher seniority get to pick their shifts first. The city alleges the new system will be fairer and more efficient. The union alleges it will take away from the drivers' ability to balance their work and personal lives.
