We Support Halifax's Transit Workers!

Two Rallies Thursday In Support Of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 508

  • Thursday, Feb. 2, at 7 am at the Dartmouth Sportsplex
  • Thursday, Feb. 2, at 5 pm at Grand Parade

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 508

Halifax and District Labour Council

Contact Info for HRM Councillors


 

Open Letter to HRM Mayor Peter Kelly

Dear Mayor Kelly:

I am writing as President of the largest union in Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union with 30,000 members, and as First Vice-President of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour. I want to express our full support for the letter of January 27, 2011 from NSFL President Rick Clarke to you about the current round of “negotiations” or more accurately, “ultimatum bargaining” by HRM/Metro Transit with our sisters and brothers in the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 508.

We are very upset with the approach being taken by HRM/Metro Transit in this current round. It clearly seems designed to provoke a strike and to completely disregard the long-established rights and protections for the members of Local 508. You are quoted in today’s Halifax Metro as “wanting to be reasonable and respectful and to find the balance to the issues at hand”. We question how this can be achieved when you are trying to put a gun to the head of the Local. This is certainly not reasonable or respectful.

A fair and just resolution of this dispute is of major concern to us, considering 17,000 of our members live in HRM. We support President Clarke’s call for you to ensure that there is fair and open bargaining in these negotiations. We were pleased to learn negotiations have resumed in the last few days between the parties, but it should be clear that the only way a strike can be averted is for HRM/Metro Transit not to try to trample over the bargaining and job security rights and protections of Local 508. Contracting-out is a non-starter.

Please be assured we are prepared to do everything we can to support our sisters and brothers in Local 508 at this crucial time.

In Soidarity

Joan Jessome

NSGEU President


 

In Solidarity With HRM Transit Workers, NSGEU Postpones Part Of Campaign

As the 763 members of Atlantic Transit Union Local 508 are pushed closer to strike, NSGEU has postponed a health care marketing campaign that would see posters and murals on dozens of Metro Transit buses.

Thousands of Nova Scotians rely on the transit service every day. Many of them are among NSGEU’s 30,000 members; many more are people helped by NSGEU members.

“Transit is as much a public service as health care or home support,” says NSGEU President Joan Jessome. “If city hall gets even a fraction of the concessions they’re looking for, transit service will suffer.”

“We know from painful experience that taking away from the front-line workers who deliver a service leads to a weakened service,” says Jessome. “These workers are willing to stand firm to protect themselves and the people they serve. We stand with them.”

Tracey Fisk is the president of NSGEU’s largest health care local, Local 42 – Capital Health (Health Care), and an LPN at Capital Health’s rehab centre. She is eager to promote the incredible work that she and her fellow 3,800 members do every day. “But we’re certainly not going to do it with total disregard for other unionized workers and the struggles they are facing.”

Local 42’s bargaining committee will exchange proposals with the employer at Capital Health on Feb. 6 and is scheduled to bargain on Feb. 14, 15 and 16.