OTTAWA – ATU Canada is questioning if public transit is at all a priority for the Trudeau government after the release of its ministerial mandate letters earlier today. After an unusually long wait, the government has finally released their mandate letters to ministers including Minister of Transportation, Omar Alghabra and Infrastructure Minister Dominic Leblanc. Despite the fact that both portfolios deal heavily with public transit, there is almost no mention of it in either of their letters. Notably, Alghabra’s letter does not even mention public transit once.

TORONTO – ATU Canada National President, John Di Nino is calling the Ford government’s dismissal of transit workers in the newly passed washroom access legislation a “callous and unacceptable move.”

OTTAWA – ATU Canada National President, John Di Nino, is voicing his frustration and disappointment with the federal government saying that the Throne Speech given this afternoon “completely leaves out transit workers and riders.” The federal government gave its Throne Speech Tuesday afternoon as Parliament resumed yesterday following the last federal election that took place earlier this Fall. Just like the federal budget announcement in April, there was no mention of additional transit funding for struggling transit agencies.

TORONTO – ATU Canada is calling the recent failure around the TTC worker helpline after the fallout from the ransomware attack “a continuation of the mismanagement of the TTC and reflection of their carelessness and neglect when it comes to its workers.” Earlier this week, it was announced that the data of 25,000 workers including many current and former ATU members, had been compromised. This included personal and employment information like their social insurance numbers. As a result, management had directed workers to call a support hotline.

ATU Canada is saddened and frustrated to learn that the TTC is continuing to refuse to collaborate with ATU Local 113 to ensure a successful vaccine mandate policy. Other municipalities across the country like Brampton, Mississauga and Edmonton have navigated vaccine mandates without cutting services and creating a hostile environment for employees.

The Amalgamated Transit Union has been advocating since the beginning of the pandemic, in co-operation with our locals to procure, promote and enable vaccinations for all transit workers. Instead of working with us on this, the TTC has resorted to policies that hurt not only workers but the public as well. Cutting necessary TTC services and trying to pit the public against employees is disingenuous and misleading. Exploiting the cover of a deadly pandemic to make cuts, while villainizing frontline workers is unconscionable. Our members have been working tirelessly to make sure that residents and essential workers are able to get to where they need to go. They deserve gratitude from the public and their employer.

TORONTO - ATU Canada is decrying the new washroom access mandate from the Ford government saying that it must include transit operators. Ford’s Minister of Labour, Monte McNaughton announced this morning that the government is planning to introduce legislation that will make it the law for delivery workers to have access to washrooms at businesses where they are delivering or picking up items. The legislation would cover a large breadth of delivery workers and transport drivers including truck drivers, couriers, food delivery workers and Canada Post delivery employees but leaves out transit workers.

MILTON – Drivers at Milton Transit voted Thursday, in an overwhelming 80% majority to join the ATU. The ATU was contacted by a retired ATU member who said that his coworkers were demanding representation and protection from their private contractor Pacific Western Transit. Some of the key issues mentioned were unfair sign-ups, sick days, and lack of protection for on-demand and paratransit workers.