Statistically speaking, 98% of a population is basically ALL. So basically all but a few voted in favour of a bus strike that kept many elderly, physically challenged and poor people from getting to necessary doctor appointments and food banks. Keeping the Access-a-Buses running at least would have shown some class and not even affected ATU’s bargaining position, but instead, helped those who were dealt a hand much worse than the $50k/year you suffer.
So, with that kind of statistic, it will be hard for me to encounter any bus driver without assuming to myself, “Yup, likely one of the 98%… I know what this person voted for.” —Not Part of the 98%
This article appears in Feb 2-8, 2012.
As the Occupy kids learned to their chagrin, you can throw around percentages and still get your ass bitten by the amount of actual diversity concealed within. One of the things I’d like to see come out of this clusterfuck is the privatization of Access-a-busses and the ferry system.
Are there any mayoral candidates with the cojones to consider that?
If I see one more transit strike bitch…
The 98% vote was based on the contract way back in January (the 22nd or something) — NOT the last ones tabled. That didn’t go to a membership vote.
Get your facts straight before you bitch, asswad.
Correct, January 22 was the vote date. The union turned down the latest one tabled based on that initial vote. Ken Wilson indicated numerous times in interviews that the decision to turn down the latest one was based on the 98% support. Those are the facts. If the union is not representing the workers then they clearly have more issues to address.
Agreed OP, I also think, unlike the union members- that high divorce rate should not be relevent to a strike. Here is to hoping that everyone out there can get to where they need to go safely and on time!
A high divorce rate attests to quality of life.
Any of you pricks out there bitching about bus drivers who feel they are shit on your shoe and who fucking cares what type of working conditions and quality of life they have! would probably be the first ones to bitch if YOUR working conditions were crap.
You people really amaze me with your short sighted crap. You bitch about the drivers only thinking about themselves, yet you’re so self centered and me me me… hypocritical, much?
Why SHOULD the membership be concerned about anyone but themselves? No one give a fuck about them! On top of that, why shouldn’t they be into looking out for themselves? IT’s not like any of you are going to pay their bills, look after their kids or fix their marriages.
But I”m done debating this shit with idiots. Perhaps if any of you decide to go out and get a clue (and even if you did decide, I’m sketch on whether or not you’re even capable of it), you’ll realize you’re all a bunch of morons.
Glad my girlfriend lets me use her car, ahhh. I pay her in awesome sex instead of gas. She accepts that cause I’m THAT goooood.
FIG JAM, Brawdove.
F-uck
I-‘m
G-ood
J-ust
A-sk
M-e
Get over it. You don’t see the elderly, physically challenged and poor people bitching.
often a 98% strike vote is a vote of confidence for the bargaining commitee, it tells the company that they had better damn well negotiate or the bargaining committee can and will take the workers out on strike.
Love how people in Nova Scotia think 50k a year is first of all what they automatically take home after taxes, and then think that’s a rich person’s salary.
unfortunately, strikes are sometimes a neeesary evil. one that we have to put up with. if you want etter work cnditions, health benifits and more salary, then they are the ones to give you a hand in getting it. don’t get me wrong here, i have no lve for any union either, but as i say, they are a nessesary evil, living in our world today, that we have to put up with. get the picture.
LOL@Pretty Kitty. Chill out…you’ll be back to work soon enough.
I think it’s long past time the membership threw Kenny under a bu……..
Well, you get the picture >: )
If there is no ridership, then there is no need for the bus. So the union shot themselves in the foot as the ridership would decrease and there would be less need for employees as the good faith in the system was eroded.
They went to strike because they refused to take a mandatory schedule which would ACTUALLY increase their quality of life because they can actually PLAN for everything. So, Pretty Kitty, your argument is baseless and just seems like an emotional reaction.
Truth be told I use the bus, but I am willing to tough it out so that the city claws back on the demands and the union crumbles. Ken Wilson ruined it for the 508.
Ba da ba ba baaaa….
I’m lovin’ it.
…and the inevitable fare increase will probably not be used to give seniors a ride-free day, but to fatten up the union’s strike fund. BRA-FUCKING-VO! Local 508. You are truly heores to us all.
FYI: I’m not a bus driver.
Also, many of you are forgetting the nature of working in a union environment. NO union OR membership is going to agree to a collective agreement that takes away things they’ve already fought for and received. That’s just the nature of the beast.
It’s ridiculous how much disrespect drivers are getting. A LOT out there should be ashamed of themselves. Why is YOUR job any more important than theirs? All anyone goes on about is how the drivers sit on their asses all day and do nothing.
Well I hate to break it to you, but a good portion of all those bitching about the drivers’ jobs being useless are themselves, sitting on their asses doing nothing all day.
I also hate to break it to everyone that the drivers aren’t doing anything ‘wrong.’ They are 100% protected by the labour code of canada which gives union members the right to legal strike. If you’re going to be pissed off at anyone, be pissed off at federal law makers.
Bitches be ignorant.
I agree, however, considering that they are already PAID for the service shouldn’t it be the public’s right to ask for compensation for services not rendered? Based on who they chose to represent the union, this clown-butler Ken Wilson, the union destroyed any pretense of tolerance I have for their issue. Nobody gave two shits when MY job was on the line. All I got was, ‘too behind the times, sucks to be you’.
And what is with this ‘I hate to break it to you’. If you did then you wouldn’t say it. You wanted to sound like you knew more than the person you argued with, that’s why you said it!
The drivers are lumped in it because this is what they VOTED. They voted that this retard had the power to hold the city hostage so I have zero sympathy for them now that the public hates them with a passion. I live in Spryfield. I work in Bedford, car went kaput and I thought I would use the bus to tie me over until I could afford another vehicle. This strike made me realize that public sector unions make so sense.
Once again, PUBLIC sector unions make absolutely NO sense!
you’d make a great bus driver kitty, ‘cept your feet wouldn’t reach the pedals^^j/k xox
The sooner we can force ALL public sector unions into binding arbitration, the better. This clusterfuck is just going to continue with the NSGEU, Halifax Water, what’s next? Are they going to cut off medical services to everyone and water to everyone like the ATU has done with their TAX PAYER FUNDED SERVICE because the tax payerscan’t afford to to pay a 10% raise when our economy barely grows 1% a year!?
And that 1% a year is essentially just public sector growth.
What the fuck!?
Government does not create wealth people!
Unions don’t create wealth in public sector environments other than for their members – the 1% (or less)!
There is so product being sold that is creating money – the products are all subsidized by the taxpayers! Wake the fuck up, anyone who supports the “bus drivers”… The bus drivers have been brainwashed by inept union management into thinking they are on the winning side on this… When March rolls around and they are still huddling around their garbage can fires, maybe it might begin to dawn on them what kind of a world we live in in this province. There is no more money!!!
at the moment there is a conciliator, not the same as mediation or arbitration. i told the bear, many times last year, 2012 will be the year of the strike
Pretty Kitty: “But I”m done debating this shit with idiots.”
~ You sure type long responses for someone done debating this. You’ll post again.
Pretty Kitty: “If you’re going to be pissed off at anyone, be pissed off at federal law makers.”
~ Yes, this make sense. I am also angry at the wives of alcoholics for enabling them when they drink.
At the end of the day the ATU is just one more group in this god forsaken province that thinks taxpayer money is a bottomless pit of money that they want an even bigger chunk of. That’s what this province is all about…gouging each other as much as we possibly can.
YA!I’m behind the bus drivers… and their right as alcoholics to beat their enabling wives!
wait, what?
I LOVE the idea of forcing drug testing as a provision… make it part of the routing process… keep the drink bus drivers over in spryfield with the other drunk motorists… and away from the fairer citizens….
HEY, the drunks are normally near the bars at the north end!
Oh, come on, pretty kitty. Someone clearly pointed out in the comments for another bitch that you incorrectly stated that Metro Transit bus drivers pay 100% of their benefits. You had no argument or response to that. As you can see in the union agreement in Article 22 HRM pays 50% of the pension contributions and cost shares the other benefits (linked here:
http://applications.atucanada.ca/content_R… )
So perhaps it you is that people should stop debating about this with – because when you’re arguing incorrect or made up facts to try to prove your point, that makes you the “idiot”
PK … do you know anything about the impending Dal faculty strike? because I will shit bricks if that happens … :'(