ATU Local 279 President Noah Vineberg Highlights at Ottawa City Council Transit Committee Meeting

Transcript from the address:

ATU LOCAL 279 Transit Committee Meeting

0:02
Good morning, Mosul.

0:05
Thank you for the time today.

0:08
I want to start by highlighting the one thing that this organization has never changed.

0:14
Broken promises, Failed projects.

0:18
Several general managers,

0:20
a pandemic,

0:22
The biggest shift to hybrid and return to work

0:25
we have ever seen.

0:27
Through every decade and its history, one thing has held strong

0:32
the frontline workers of OC Transpo, the members of ATU279. They are the only real constant this system has ever had. They do not make the decisions. They do not control the plans,

0:47
but when it breaks down they are the ones who show up and keep the city moving.

0:52
They have done this through every change at the top and they are still doing it today. It needs to be understood before we talk about anyone new or future hired,

1:05
and there is a lot here I want to believe in.

1:08
I remain cautiously optimistic. I have said it publicly and I mean it.

1:14
I want this to be real. I want for the riders who count on us and for the members who've carried this city the whole way.

1:21
A general manager who comes in saying he will deliver what he promises is good. And it's great to hear that is the right place to start and I want to build from that.

1:30
May de France, but allow me to speak freely,

1:36
put out her investigation into the hiring at OC Transpo.

1:40
It is a public document and she found people already inside the organization with as much experience and education as those that were placed ahead of them or more.

1:51
That is gatekeeping.

1:54
This is the exact thing that the Union has been raising for more than two years and it is still alive today.

2:00
I have good people right now waiting for that gate that should already be open.

2:06
We raised it, we've been heard, and now the work to fix it is underway.

2:12
But that needs to be prioritized.

2:15
So when the plan leans on campaigns to bring people in from the outside, my question is not whether or not we need people. We do.

2:24
It is why the push goes from hiring from scratch while the experienced, qualified long serving members already here are left wondering why the latter

2:35
is no longer honest.

2:37
You do not fix retention with a billboard, you fix it by being straight with the people that you already have.

2:45
Every transit agency on this continent is short staffed right now. In a job where the violence on the system and against our people keeps climbing. Everyone is struggling to attract and keep good people.

3:02
I am genuinely anxious to see what we are going to do about it

3:05
together

3:07
because the answer is not only out there. A lot of it is already sitting within our workforce here today, in the Members who have kept this moving.

3:15
I want to believe it. I want to help build it. Go find the people who will build what comes next. We need them,

3:22
but please do not make the oldest mistake that this place has continued to make. Do not forget the ones who carried you through every failure and stand ready to do it again. They are not your backup plan. They are the foundation that you were built on

3:37
are very koala, our very labatia as if we want to build it together with you. But this time, please don't take it for granted that the people who have never has levering

3:51
mercy even when everything else failed.

3:54
Now, so you know what,

4:00
I think a lot of it comes down to the overall conditions, a lot of the items that we've raised. And I am pleased to say that we have in the last year worked on a lot of those things. I think we are finally having real talk about what runtimes mean and what we can use to actually deliver an honest service. Those are all refreshing topics that Mister Leary has brought in, which is refreshing

4:23
and something that I enjoy to hear. Obviously, as I had said here before as well, Troy was very much on the same page with us on that as well. So I am looking forward to all of this. That's why I continue to say that we will do it together.

4:37
The overall conditions, the safety team at OC Transport was second to none. I don't have any

4:44
know that we are all on the same page and going in the right direction and I continue to have faith in that. I do believe we are in the right direction. I do believe we are in the right hands at this moment. I just want to keep making sure that the people that have gotten us here are recognized every step of that way.

5:02
We're about to enter into a new schedule or booking system, so to speak, for the next wave after school ends. So a lot of the real data in there, all of the real feedback has not been able to come in yet. But in the short term, I'm getting positive feedback from our members that there is a lot less pressure on them and more than that, they're getting better interaction with the public, again, which is incredibly important

5:31
in certain departments. Absolutely, the number is 105 is what we're going to hold them to. But yes, absolutely, I like hearing it and I want to be a part of how we're going to get there and see that vision and plan together. There is a lot of pressure, particularly on our two and four lines. The amount of pressure that has been on our rail lines to sustain what has been difficult through these last few years, it has

5:57
accumulated and become a very heavy load for a lot of them, particularly in their family and work life balance and having to commit to keeping those systems alive. We've worked very well recently together to correct a lot of those things. And I really do appreciate that cooperation and that the acknowledgement of what has gone into it thus far.

6:18
I don't have more timelines or dates than anybody else. And I can say that for line one, we are in a good position to to move forward on a lot of these issues. And my members are as anxious as the public and as you representing them that we do want that running and we are anxious to get it going. And I think we're all on the right track, for lack of a better term. They are not your backup plan. They are the foundation that you were built on.