The bus strike effected the people that least could ‘afford’ it. The working poor that are trying to stay ahead of their bills, our seniors that are on fix incomes and our students that are heavy in debt. The city didn’t care, the ATU surely didn’t (blocking accessabus, snow plows, etc).
Now they get a $4,000 bonus with tax payer money, clearing out the money saved by not running the bus! It amazes me that a mob hasn’t stormed city hall. The police should have used force when the ATU blocked the plows… the same force or more they used on the occupy protesters who WERE SITTING IN A PARK!!! Yet here we are, Nova Scotians who do nothing, say nothing. Elective members stealing from tax payers (generators, etc), raising our taxes to the highest in Canada (15%), police abusing our citizens (occupy movement) and fat, self intitled bus drivers demanding more money than our wallets/purses care bare.
This is the result of inaction. —A Watchman
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2012.
Where is dood with the graffitti? Get him on this.
Affected* Also, you sound like you don’t actually know the reasons behind the strike, and you certainly don’t know why the ATU did what they did. The strike is over, the busses are free for the rest of the month, and they’re either refunding the february passes, or allowing you to use them in april. Your choice. Get over it.
Did you send a message to Peter Kelly about how you felt about the strike? No? Because you sure as hell could have.
Another thing, when they blocked the Access-a-bus and the plows, they held them off for 10 minutes. They weren’t planning to stop them all together.
jfc, op, get your shit together.
I’m pretty sure that supporting Occupy while criticizing Unions is an example of counter-revolutionary thought crime which could earn you a mandatory self-criticism session before a quorum of the plenary council.
At any rate, Assinus Craximus, the cost of bread and wine have not increased in the past lunar cycle and there is a fine slate of Nubian captives scheduled for the next round of games at the Coliseum, so Bono animo esto ac feliciter vive.
“wallets/purses care bare” So which CARE BARE is it Grumpy or Love a Lot?
THe bus strikes over…so I guess we’ll be going back to the usual ,oversize strollers, stinky patrons, foul mouthed rider & of course shitty driver bitches !
Did I leave any of the usual bus bitches out guy’s ?
Its been awhile & your memory gets spotty when you get to my age !
Not to mention those (especially women) whose ass is so fat that s/he can’t fit in the seat and I have to put up with their gross body-jello jiggling against me… lose some weight people!
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/pass… ://www.societiesmirror.com/image/funny-pictures/small/1012/oh-the-poor-armrest-fat-guy-plane-armrest-funny-pictures-1291861577.jpg
…random sock puppet shows on the bench at the back. Especially during rush hour. That one really crisps my nipples.
judging by the bus bitches over the last few years, the baboon passenger bitches made up a larger percentage than the baboon driver bitches (apologies to actual primates)
True enough. It’s enough to make one want hurl their own faeces in sheer frustration.
M0rti
* buses (unless you MEANT kisses)
* altogether
yeah, i read that too o.p., and was sickened by it. just think folks, these guys got a golden deal, by sitting on their asses again. i thought bargaining was supposed to be give and take, but seems city just gave up everything, and got fuck all back. time for transit to go, and maybe horses and buggies to reapper.
I don’t think the union made off with a golden deal on this on as LIFE SUCKS put it. $4000 (taxable) signing bonus as well as 8% over four years in exchange for Rostering, Driver Pay Scale (new drivers will start at $18/HR and it will take five years for them to reach the full wage) and the dissolution of the Accident Review Board along with the severe public relations beating they took sounds looks more like a defeat to me. Also, remember the ATU isn’t just drivers, there is also mechanics, ferry workers and other occupations amongst the union as well.
yeah, no matter what you say there, ks86, they got the golden fucking goose. you are either married to one, or are a driver, or union rep. no matter how you wanna fucking slice, we still got fucked as a citizenry. yeah, the drivers and others get the goodies, and who is left holding the fucking bag. a lot of those drivers live outside hrm, so their taxes won’t reflect any increase. kelly should have held his ground, til the end of march, and let the union stew in their own shit, that they strated. i know alot of drivers, and they all say wilson is the second biggest ashole in this country, harper being the first.
No argument whatsoever LIFE SUCKS that the general public was seriously affected by this, no argument there at all, and I understand why you’re quite enraged by this.
I am not a driver, nor married to one, nor a union rep I can assure you. I was only stating what I saw was a defeat on the union’s part if you look at what they gained and what they lost. HRM and Metro Transit Management managed to accomplish their objectives UNDER the pre-established budget dictated by council.
Didn’t mean to come off as condescending towards you or anything just only stating my opinion.
you didn’t come off as condescending, you’re just trying to see the larger picture
This thread should be retitled “How To Go On Strike And Receive Full Pay”.
At least my Councillor (who as a rookie hadn’t done too much to date) showed some balls and voted against this travesity. I wasn’t going to vote for him next election, but now am rethinking on that.
Why not take a page from the ATU playbook? Lets organize everyone we know to block the buses from leaving the major terminals. Hey, we can’t possibly have less rights than the ATU, right? We’ll let the buses go out after 10 minutes, one at a time.
Who’s in? See you at the bridge terminal tomorrow @ 6:30 a.m.; then at the ferry terminal @ 8 a.m.!
You could block the buses javagirl, however if you are looking to anger the ATU and the drivers I’m not sure that would be the most productive course of action as it would allow them to collect overtime since they are going to be late for circumstances beyond their control.
This in turn will anger management since now they’re paying for overtime they fought to reduce and I’m sure they will pull some strings to have the police break your lines regardless of your rights.
This is only something to consider however, feel free to tell me to where to go otherwise…
If you and your comrades truly wish to anger/annoy the drivers javagirl the best course of action would to have you and your chums consume copious amounts of methane inducing foods (ala “Epic Meal Time”), board a bus and then expell your built up internal methane until the bus is a rolling “fart factory” (to be crude). Though innocents are sure to be caught in the cross fire I’m sure the reaction of the bus driver you intend to target would offer significant emotional compensation.
Also, the police cannot arrest you for expelling internal methane since it is a natural bodily function.
i’d take flatulence over spitting, anytime
Javagirl: your efforts would likely be better spent getting a life rather than trying to block buses from leaving terminals.
The strike is over, it is what it is, now get the fuck over it and quit your fucking whining.
I jest paingirl, I do not wish any harm on anyone, especially since the distraction and or abuse of a Transit Driver can lead to quite disasterous consequences for everyone involved.
..get a bs fb campaign going…tell the sheep the bus drivers were steal’n …mini-buses 😉
I agree…tax payers got screwed on this one.
The city claims they will save in the long run…LOL My ass.
One of the contract concessions was the ability of the city to investigate accidents…WAIT? WHAT? They didn’t have that ability before…are you serious? Another “concession” was to give new drivers less money…Drivers are pissed off at this??? So if you are a driver with 10-15 years experience you think it’s ok for a new driver to come in and make just as much as you? Lack of education really showing there! No rostering (kind of) The union will have input on the scheduling…wtf does that mean? It means that when the ATU doesn’t agree they will be filing grievances….how much money will those time wasting exercises cost us? Negotiators were supposed to negotiate a contract based on city council’s direction…why did 2 vote no then? WTG HRM you just got screwed! Send a message this Oct…no matter who is running, simply vote out every incumbent! And for god’s sake don’t vote in Savage…teachers are still trying catch up from what his daddy did! You know apples don’t fall far from the tree!
“I agree…tax payers got screwed on this one.”
How? I’d love to hear your enthralling tale of how HRM saved 6 weeks of salaries and bus maintenance and only had to pay 4k (which would be 4 weeks of salary, not even, minus any overtime) means we got screwed.
And the city got rostering… so no more extraneous over time….
I fail to see how this screws over the tax payer.
You’re really dramatic op.
And yes. Plow blockers should have been arrested or at the very least forcibly removed. But it’s not like they blocked the plows for two months straight while sucking thousands from the taxpayers at the same time. Also bus drivers actually pay taxes which is another important distinction between those two groups.
In fact, the free two weeks each transit user will get is roughly equivalent to whatever was ‘sucked’ from them tax-wise.
It’s shitty what happened op but they’re giving a pretty sweet deal to those of us who got fucked over this last month. Stop looking for a reason to be dramatic and just get back to living your life. You’re not in fucking North Korea or Haiti or goddamned Moqdishu so why not chalk this up to a case of shitty mismanagement? No city is going to be perfect. No situation is going to be handled in a way that benefits you 100% of the time. I think we got a pretty sweet hunk of humble pie. Yes i’m pissed about what we went through this last month but shit happens and at least they did SOMETHING for us. It costs a lot to run those vehicles without any revenue. To give an entire city two weeks of free transit and a month and a half to those hapless souls who bought passes for february is going to cost a lot of money.
PK I was going to say that. If anything, it SAVED taxpayers money.
I think if you confront the average cereal-box-revovlutionary with numbers they’ll tend to ignore your question but for the record i wanted to say that i was thinking the exact same thing.
I stand by..tax payers have been screwed over.
I don’t believe they deserved any bonus or anything. They were lucky to get their well paid jobs back.
Essential Services and Discrimination ?
This week HRM city councilors chomp the bit about whether or not Transit is an essential service and there does not appear to be any rush to deem it one despite the very real hardships that were placed on the elderly, disabled, the poor, students and workers who cannot afford their own vehicles.
As an advocate on issues of poverty it was awesome to see so many non-impoverished citizens speak up and out on behalf of our most vulnerable populations yet city council remains loudly silent refusing to move this issue forward for public discussion and input.
It begs the question-how many councillors use the bus-
Perhaps if they traveled by bus they would see the need with need dictating the degree of essential necessity.. Refusing to take this discussion immediately to the public reveals, as usual, the lack of spine and political will to act on behalf of citizens that rely solely on transit to travel. The failure to respond timely to this issue discriminates against not only the poor but also the disabled for apparently only the most disabled should have council sympathy and have their ACCESS-A-BUS deemed essential. What about the many disabled that do not qualify for such buses which are usually reserved for wheelchair bound persons?…
Is council saying some disabled persons are more worthy than others?
Disabled people do not all look alike so stop putting us all in the same category, not only does this reflect the immeasurable ignorance on council’s behalf but it is blatant discrimination against the various forms and needs of persons with disabilities.
This is socio-economic-class discrimination as many folks who need the bus cannot afford not to take the bus or cannot afford cabs or their own car…..what happened to promoting green cities and provinces as well. This is an essential service to get to appointments, purchase groceries and basic necessities, get children to child care, rides to work and school…….shame on council but not shocked at yet another manifestation of uneducated opinions from the elected public servant..
Kay, so now I’m singing “O meek Nova Scotians” to the tune of “Morning Has Broken” by Cat (Sulyman) Stevens
O, meek Nova Scotian-ns
when will you wa-a-a-ke up?