Transit Strike

Calgary has been suffering a transit strike for the last two weeks. It's been a royal pain in the butt for all concerned. There doesn't seem to be any end in sight right now. The transit union has been 15 months without a contract, and there appears to have only been 6 meetings prior to the strike vote. If you believe the union, they've been ready, willing, and able to meet, but the city negotiation team hasn't been able to fit it into their schedule. This does appear to fit into how the city negotiates with other unions. The end of a contract is usually seen as the sign that discussions should begin. Nothing really happens till the union takes a strike vote. Then the city gets serious. It sure makes you wonder if the city negotiates in good faith. There are reports the mayor and union had had some fruitful talks that appeared to make a breakthrough, but then the city negotiators didn't follow through.

The city says it doesn't have the money to pay the union, yet they have handed out about a million dollars of cab vouchers. Of course, there's a brisk business converting them to cash. I don't know what percent of these vouchers are used fraudulently, but given a choice of cab vouchers or paying transit workers, I'll pick the transit workers every time. There don't appear to be any controls on getting the vouchers. Going in with a convincing sob-story appears to be enough.

By now, both the union and city are locked into the "my dick is bigger than your dick" mentality, which makes it difficult to back down from various negotiating postures. Meanwhile the negotiators get paid. In my world, their pay would stop the moment the contract expires. Maybe that would give them some incentive to come to an agreement. A couple aldermen are talking about taking the issue to arbitration. Whatever works. In a short term limited view, the city may think it is saving money by not paying transit staff, or running the various services. In a wider view, it costs everyone in the city more. They have to make alternate arrangements to get to their destinations. There are far more cars on the road, leading to longer driving times on roads that were already congested. People without access to cars are hit disproportionately hard.

More fundamentally, the whole union employer relationship is sour. The city will always claim it can't do something the employees want because of the union contract. If it's something the city wants they usually find a way around the contract. The union seems to take the stance that the only important issues are money and seniority. However, many people would like to have additional paid vacation time come earlier. It takes 17 years to get 5 weeks vacation. Why not drop that a little? Even some of the transit workers feel they are not represented by their union. Union workers don't trust the city administration and managers because they've been lied to so many times. The city makes some of the right noises that purport to show concern for their staff, but the actions taken show the opposite every time.

The city sent around a letter to all employees telling them they had to cross the picket lines or be subject to disciplinary action. Concern about the safety of employees crossing picket lines was one of the last items mentioned in the letter. My employer recently had some protesters in front of the building. We were sent a note about the possibility of it the day before, and an update the same day. The second sentence in the note told us that if we couldn't safely enter the building, we were not to do so, but rather phone our supervisor and something else would be worked out.

I feel sorry for the city workers, including those on strike. They are working for an employer that treats them badly, and doesn't respect their work. Yet all but a very few of the city workers I know, (and I used to work for the city, and my wife currently does) are dedicated, hard working people. They try to do a good job under difficult circumstances, and are rewarded with more and more work. The city has grown dramatically, yet the size of the civil service has hardly changed at all.

They are busy in a re-org right now, and what I hear tells me they have botched it. Wasted our taxpayer dollars. As always, the city managers have protected themselves and their favourite pets. Nothing much has changed. There are still about twice too many managers, and far too many layers in the organization. There are 7 layers from the bottom to the top, most of which is management, in an organization of about 10, 000. The company I work for has about 10 times as many people, spread out world wide, yet there are 4 layers in the Canadian part of the organization, and one or two above the top person in Canada. I do have to admit I'm a little fuzzy about the top of the international org. None the less, it seems clear that the city staff is over managed, with far too many layers of management.

The transit strike is only one of the symptoms of problems in the city. Other unions are coming up on the ends of their contracts, and have nothing but strife to look forward to. I think the Aldermen and Mayor need to take a real look at how the city administers itself. Too often the Council doesn't really know what is going on, and they should. The city has a hard enough time keeping qualified staff. If this strike goes on much longer, some of the people are going to start looking for other jobs. Given Calgary's economic climate, I'd be surprised if they don't find them. Then the city service is out good people, to the loss of all the citizens.