"If the strike occurred in the summer months no one would care."

That is the crux of the issue. The contract expired last spring and the mayor's office chose to wait until December to issue the new contract and change the bus scheduling. The timing of this strike is at the mayor's feet.

What? The union is supposed to give up a fundamental right of seniority just because Mayor No'Brain tries to cripple the union in December?

What are the drivers supposed to do? Accept the contract and then tear it up and go on strike once the weather is warm?

It's TOO BAD the mayor decided to throw Ottawa's citizens "under the bus" in the cold, but these negotiations are between the drivers and their employer. If you're so horribly inconvenienced and want your buses back, then call the mayor's office and tell them as much.

If you want to have the OC Transpo declared an essential service, then by all means, have it done. The previously "disposable" bus drivers will be happy to take their list of demands before an arbitrator with their recently upgraded "indisposable" status. If Mayor No'Brain thinks he's going to be saving any money, he's very wrong.

"Fire every single bus driver"?! Get real. That would get the attention of every other union, and turn this into a general strike.

Call Mayor No'Brain and tell him to stay out of scheduling!

A piece of mind; We can appreciate your hard work - As a taxpayer, we have to the right to have a say with this as what say goes = we pay for your salaries/benefits - This is outrighteous = Mr. Mayor don't give in a parent should NOT give in, only if it's worked for = They say they should a family live - we have a family as well...put a head on your neck, at least you have a job...you should be happy!!!

I drive to work, but find that the roads are filled to the brim. It seems that Ottawa is really on the verge of complete grid lock in the near future. The city and the NCC should be noting every corner and ever street that is highly congested. These are the very locations that traffic is not flowing and the automotive transit is not working. I would forward to the City that this is a great opportunity to make our streets and roads better. Make them flow. Project more lanes. We should not be fooled that everyone will take public transport in the future. In the future Ottawa will grow and we will have this many cars on the road in a few years with all the OCtranspo vehicles also stopping the flow.

As for the Bus drivers I feel for their cause but it is unrealistic to have so much leeway with your scheduling. Besides the most experienced and seniority drivers are the ones I want running during rush hours not the other way around. I think rookie drivers should be the ones on the road less until they have years of experience. Sorry. Public safety first.

Bus drivers you should take a good look at the economic times - too ..unemployment is rising don't think your jobs are secured.

Third I think the City needs to separate OC bus lines from the transitway and train making two distinctly separate companies. The Transitway / Train/future subway would be taken over by the NCC and would allow true integration and extension into Gatineau and for the wider metropolitan area. The NCC Transport would also then have its own union and not cripple the economy as badly as this time, being only part of the transportation system. Plus, it would connect Gatineau much better to Ottawa.

The National Capital Region should actually become its own province which would be the best solution for Canada having more neutral ground for the capital between Quebec and Ontario. But that is a different debate.

I would like to bring up a question: why is there no minimum service for taxpayers during that bus strike?

Taxpayers depend on public transport to commute.
Low income families depend on public transport to commute.
People without car depend on public transport to commute, to go to work, to go and pick up their kids, to do shopping to take care of their families ... in short, to live.

As I don't know the details of the strike (as what we hear on the news is maybe not what happens in reality), I will not say who is right, who is wrong. I just wonder, why, the City and the Union did not have the moral to set up a minimum service for their employers, the taxpayers? If normally there is a bus every 5 minutes, during the strike, at least there must have a bus every hour!

Hey wake up! Don't forget your employer is the taxpayers. Show them respects.

The strike hurts families, people, businesses, the country.

You believe that it's your right to fight? Fight! but do show taxpayers respects: set up a minimum service. Hire private buses to serve people who go to work, who pay taxes, to take care of their families, even though they earn only the minimum wages or below!

If public transportation is not an essential service, the City + Union should at least have the moral to set up some form of transportation for ottawans during their fight. It's not about law, it's about people!

I had to scramble to adjust to the strike. I walked to work and home for the first few days. One and 1/2 hours both ways. Luckily, I was able to get my nephew to stop off to pick me up on his way in to town from Orleans. Otherwise, it would have been grim. I've heard a lot of negative comments about the mayor, I'm not one of his biggest fans but this is all the union's fault. A fair contract was offered that they refused. All so that senior drivers could pad their overtime pay cheques. I've looked at the Ontario list of city workers that make more than 100K. There are a few from OC Transpo ion that list. This is not about family - It's greed and insensitivity pure and simple. At a time of economic peril for a great many Canadians, these selfish people want more and yet more. I could wish them sleepless nights for the harm they have caused but you actually need a conscience for that to happen.

I can sympathize with you my friend. The strike has effected us all. I've been fortunate enough to live right on top of where I work. But there are other things that are draining me out.

I can't go anywhere without relying on rides, and that doesn't give me a whole lot to do. With the Christmas season, winter in general, and working a hard days work has been stressful.

This transit strike has also had an effect on my relationship as well. My girlfriend hasn't been employed since the strike has started. Not a single employer in the area is hiring, or if they are, it's for work which she is unqualified for. It's put a strain because most times she's stranded at my apartment with nothing to do. She feels awful because she feels she is putting a burden on my stretched finances. I tell her it's not a problem, when you love somebody you look out for them anyway you can. But for somebody who is used to being self sufficient, they still feel horrible.

But the most distressing thing is that all this time closed in together, with nowhere to go, and me gone most of the day has caused all sorts of tension in our relationship.

I've been up all night arguing with her, for the third night in as many weeks. We're so on edge that we are saying such awful things to each other and it hurts but everything is just so awful nothing comes up but venom.

Our argument ended with her telling me that when she gets up in the morning, she's walking out on me.

We have our problems, no relationship is perfect, but I think a lot of tension created by this strike can be partially to blame for the mounting stress which has led to our ugliest fight.

Money, jobs, all those things can be damned.. When the person you love most in the world wants to walk out the door on you what can you do?

And I'm a relatively stable person, in in my prime and I've got a good job. I can only imagine what people with families are going through. I'm sure that there are going to be many marriages and relationships that are strained or broken because of the ongoing effects of the strike.

This strike has caused nothing but headaches and misery for a good population of the city. The 2008 holiday season was not the same as past one, stores and services lost thousands of dollars because of lack of shoppers due to the strike and driving around to prepare for the holidays has not been fun at all. I recently graduated from Algonquin College and the strike came about as my exams were starting. I had to drive myself to school for these exams and it was not cheap... I live about 20 km from the school and parking was not cheap either. Things have not been the same at work either, as a supervisor it is hard to hear that some of your staff cannot come to work because they dont have a ride, or that they show up late because of it. Most of us out there are students and we cannot afford to drive everywhere we would like to go... In my opinion I think they should fire all of these drivers and hire new people to drive buses, myself and a group of friends are willing and ready to take this job!!!

While I am annoyed with the bus drivers' failure to explain their position properly (they would be better off if they replaced their spokesman M. Cornellier), the responsibility for this strike lays squarely at the feet of M. Mercier and Mayor O'Brien. The evidence is extensive and clear, ranging from the fact that the scheduling issue was not raised till OVER SIX MONTHS after contract talks started in April to the Mayor's refusal to the federal mediator after the strike began to *even consider* budging on the remaining contentious issues. Mulish comments such as "take it or leave it" are no way to settle a quarrel. How is the average bus rider to view this as anything but bargaining in bad faith?

Nor has M. Mercier made his case to the public, much less the drivers, about the improvement the scheduling rule changes are supposed to make. Since some of the changes (e.g. about linking or "through-routing" routes) may actually make service reliability *worse*, some effort should have been made (as a heads-up) to let bus riders know about possible side effects before a contract was signed. Not a word was given to the public about these changes till five days *after* the strike started. What is wrong with this picture??

Please think about this ... *before* you assign blame for the current mess.

If there ever was a more self-serving group of city workers these transit fluff-boys take the cake. In this economy you must be really disillusioned to turn down an offer like this while holding the city for ransom. And don't gimme 'its the city's fault' YOU chose not to go to work and make everyone else's life miserable. Its not like the city locked you out or forced you to stay home.

Now, 5 weeks in, despite your pathetic strike pay (this only if you do your picket time) No matter what happens the Almighty Union Mr. Cornellier! has shafted ALL their members.

Here's my grade 4 math summary...

1.) the City is offering 7.25% over three years, and the Union is demanding 10.5%.
2.) The City is offering 8 sick day (up from just 6) per year and option to bank more, the Union wants at least 10.
3.) The City is offering a one-time $2500 cash signing bonus. (works out to about 1% over 3 years)

So the fight seems to be about 3.25%+1% pay increase and a total of 2 sick days which, ideally, nobody should be taking unless they're actually sick. For the purposes of this I'm going to assume that bus drivers are relatively fat, unhealthy bunch and use them all.

The mathematical reality; There are, for the average worker over the next three years, approximately (3 X 354 days -weekends -holidays) = 750 working days.
From the Unions own website the average bus monkey earns 65k/year (I'm sure most earn WAY more than that but hey the Union must be telling the truth) The difference of 4.25% pay translates to 21 days. Add the 2 sick days in dispute and you have 23 days. That's the number of working days the transit union can be on strike before it is actually shafting its members with an unrecoverable loss... yr smrt Mr. Cornellier!

The only issue left -The Union wants 'their people' to pick their own shifts as opposed to (presumably) managers actually being able to manage their resources like they do in every other city on the planet. What the union says:

"• The city’s proposal would allow split shifts to span 13.5 hours instead of 12, making for more dead time during the day and less family time at home."
---Wahhh Waaaaa 1&1/2 potential 'extra' hours to do your shopping, chores, errands, smoking & sitting around

"• It would let the city dictate drivers’ days off."
---welcome to every other hourly paid job on the planet. don't like it go back to school and get a salary position

"• Assigning several different routes in the same work day is a recipe for confusion and having delays in one part of the city ripple through every other part of the bus system."
---OMG confusion, that's right I forgot driving two different routs on the same day is toooooo much for your grade 4 level brain to deal with, way to speak up your Union members Mr. Cornellier!

"• The proposed system does not guarantee that a driver could take a break at the end of one run before starting another."
---So what, neither does the current system...

"• The current system began in 1999 as part of a joint effort to improve a toxic work environment by giving drivers more control over their days. The union members made a concession on wages to get it and a $2,500 one-time payment wouldn’t compensate them enough for giving it up."
----Blap, blap! 'toxic' work environment? you drive a bus? what did you expect when you applied for the position, a fluff job? Did you ever think maybe your own actions have led to a toxic work environment? O, right its never your fault.. Ottawa has had to cut transit admin staff as the strike goes on, way to make friends there....

Everyday the strikes persists another chunk of riders has found permanent alternatives to depending on a now 'wholly undependable' public transit system. This means each day the ridership decreases...this means we need fewer routes, fewer buses and ultimately fewer drivers and mechanics.

I humbly suggest the city begin daily layoffs, preferably starting with the $100K trouble makers, corresponding to the decreased need for transit workers. Since a longer strike means exponentially more people deserting the system each day, the daily layoffs will increase in size over time. Perhaps, to be fair, we should let the bus drivers choose, based on seniority, who gets laid off...but if that's the case I'd like to see the younger guys get another chance to vote first.

Heck, let's just cancel those few bus routes that go into Quebec and get it declared an essential provincial service...which worked for Toronto. Small price to pay to get this resolved in the here and now.

Alternatively, as a last resort, let's just close down OCTranspo and sell its assets to a private management firm. I personally have had enough of this publicly funded debacle.

I am dependent on the bus - I need it to get to work (across town)and school(also across town). I have been walking, mooching rides and taking cabs, all the while absorbing what people are saying.

What scares me is that under the pressure of the strike, the supposed left-wingers become neo-cons, union bashers who are reduced to masses of corporations-loving, self-serving dupes who ultimately want the problem solved without doing anything to solve it themselves. As a rule, I always will support workers over the faceless corporation - and don't kid yourself, it's the incorporated city of Ottawa. The city is not run for the people and hasn't in a long time. The first things Larry did when he took office was give himself a raise and increase taxes. But people's reactions are hilarious and misguided as they search for a scapegoat and don't bother to look at the obvious one we call mayor:

"Banish the unions!" Do you enjoy having an 8 hour work day, a 5 day work week? Unions are the reason we enjoy such things, as well has basically all of our labor laws. "Fire the drivers!" Maybe that would make sense in your head, but it actuality, severance pay for the 2300 OC employees, many of whom have more than 1 year of service will be extremely expensive. (It's minimum 1 week of pay for over 3 months of service, something all Canadian's enjoy thanks to - you guess it - UNIONS!) Training and implementation of a new system would take months, again, at an even large cost (Training is paid, after all, thanks to unions). "Privatize!" Yes, that would really make the system more reliable and cost effective - to the company, not the citizens. It's not called *Public* transportation for nothing.

I can't believe how many ignorant people post here stating drivers are over paid. If you think the job is easy, apply.

Unless you know what your talking about you should shut your mouth.

Just Bus Drivers....obviously your so ignorant you don't deserve a reply.

Arguments with your girldfriend...it's not the bus strike, you have communications problems.

What a bunch of whiners many of you are. Keep your opinions and walk or do what the samrt people do....call city hall and tell them to end this.

I want he Union to be able to make their presentation to Ottawa’s City Council. I do not trust the Mayor. He is on a mission to destroy the Union. His ideology is interfering with his judgement and ability to solve this dispute. Time to try a new strategy. The problem is that we have a Mayor who has never taken a bus in his life. You see Larry drives around the city in his Mercedes Benz as Larry O’Brien was born with a silver shovel in his mouth! Larry does not think much of the poor souls who use buses, perhaps he thinks only a little more of them than those pigeons he so likes to kicks around in the Market Area. The Driver's are demanding nothing more and nothing less than what anyone posting comments here would demand if the shoes were reversed; to claim otherwise would be very dishonest! I side with the drivers who work very hard in this city. I have witnessed passengers abusing drivers and after looking and All the facts, I side with the drivers. The drivers took a wage reduction some ten years ago, to get scheduling rights. The wage reductions which when compounded over the last decade, amount to a nice chunk of change in today's dollars. They would be idiots to accept what Lying O'Brien is offering and it seems they are not as stupid as Larry is letting on. Now ask yourselves are You perhaps being played! I would not be surprised if Big Oil would like to see many more people getting into the habit of driving a car to work, and hey then we will never need a Light Rail System in Ottawa, because numbers would just not justify the large expenditure. If you think this seems a stretch, I recommend the book by Antonia Juhasz: The Tyranny of Oil. It would not be the first time Big Oil spread around some money to destroy public transit systems and I do not trust Larry O'Brien; you see he got his job the old fashion way; he cheated.
Important update: The Ottawa Citizen Published: Thurs., Oct 09, 2008.
"The trial date for Mayor Larry O'Brien has been changed to April 27 after he waived his right to a preliminary inquiry yesterday and was committed to stand trial in Ontario Superior Court". *
*Larry O'Brien is accused of bribery and influence peddling with his conservative friends in Parliament. We should all come out to the court house (on Elgin Street, in Ottawa) to demand tougher sentences for white collar criminals like Larry O'Brien!

Hello,

I just watched the CJOH news coverage of the Ottawa transit strike. It indicated that I can have my say, therefore I am writing you.

I, like most residents, just want this strike to end. I wonder why it has taken so long to come to a resolution when so many lives are affected by the disruption. I would like to make a judgment, but I find that difficult as I feel the media coverage has been slightly one-sided. When I talk to drivers that I happen to bump in to, what I hear is that some of the facts stated in the media about salary, scheduling and bargaining are false and unchallenged. When I read Ottawa newspapers I hear all the positives about what the city has offered in this contract. When I read the editorials on various sites, people, in general, are bitter about this situation.

It is not my place to lay blame. It is time to move forward, but as a tax paying citizen and transit user I still having a difficult time understanding why we can't. For instance, the newspaper 24 hours today reported that a member of the union wrote to city councilors offering to clear up misconception about scheduling. The councilors were quoted as follows: “I believe that either individual meetings or negotiating on the floor of Council would be counter to existing direction and best labour negotiating practices”. (City Councilor Rick O’Connor) and : the letter is “highly inappropriate and that any negotiating should be completed at the bargaining table”. Gloucester-South Nepean Councilor Steve Desrochers.

I wonder why the Sun did not re-report that OC Transpo general manager Alain Mercier (employed by the city) also personally left voice mail messages on home and personal cell phones of all members of ATU 279 asking them to listen to a personal message and linking them to a video he produced for them. Isn’t that “inappropriate”? Shouldn’t that have gone through the bargaining table?

I would find it so refreshing if Ottawa media would make more of an effort to report objectively on both sides. For example: What has the union asked for? What has the city refused? What would be a concrete example of why the city controlling scheduling would be such a bad thing? Mr. Cornellier may not be the best spokesperson, at no fault of his own, but surely someone in the union is. It seems that they are trying to explain themselves, only to be critized in media coverage. Look at the reaction to the ATU letter to councilors. I want to make up my own mind; but I can’t because I’m missing some of the puzzle pieces. I only have the city section.

I read the media to be informed. I would assume that goal of the media it to ensure published information is concrete, accurate and objective. Especially when it’s about a dispute that affects the whole city. Isn’t that what good journalism is all about? I am sure you do what you can, but I hope you still see my point as this is not meant to criticize.

I worry that this has gone on too long. That restraining public anger will soon become an insurmountable task. If I depended only on the media coverage, I would think that the union is crazy; but I don't. I talk to people on both sides. I become informed. I am an intelligent woman and will not judge based on assumption.

There are many reasons why the public is angered. Some anger is directed to the city and other are angry with the union (drivers, mechanics, dispatchers). The Economist on your report indicated that the city has lost 280 million over the course of this; all during a time of economic distress. People are losing money just trying to cope with what seems to be an ego dispute. That anger has to be expressed somehow. I am sure members of the public will not knock on the mayor’s front door when they want to react but they will certainly hop onto the next bus. Maybe that is why the city was in no hurray to get back to the table after Christmas Eve. Very sad, that when people are literally suffering, that this has landed us in a game of: "he said, she said".

Thank you,

NL Davidson
Orleans, Ontario

Make ottawa Bus Service an Essential Service now, This way oc transpo can never hold Ottawa Citizens Hostage again. If not set up a New Essential Bus Service ASAP and get rid of OC Transpo.