The public transportation workers in my city are on strike, and have been for the past 13 days. That’s ok though because you know, I only take the bus twice a day, five days a week, to work. No biggie.

Actually it’s a pain in the neck, because I’ve realized that I actually take the bus more often than I thought: it’s not unusual for me to hop on the bus for three or four stops during my lunch break to pick up something, or to check out the design centre and now I can’t do that. When you have an hour to accomplish tasks, having a good bus service comes in handy. And although my parents allow me to use the car regularly, it is their car so I do sometimes have to take the bus to get things done.

I like to think I’m a somewhat empathetic person, but I am having a hard time sympathizing with the bus drivers. The two sides — the city and the union representing the transit employees — met a few times before the day the strike started and tried to negotiate a deal but none of the city’s offerings appealed to the representative for the transit employees. And the employees didn’t even get to see the last offer — a decision was made not to show it to them at all. I’m annoyed that they don’t appear to be open to negotiation.

That being said, I haven’t taken the time to find out all the details of this strike, and what the workers are so unhappy about (though I’ve heard that one of the main issues is wanting to maintain control over scheduling, something that none of the other major bus systems in the world allow their employees). Also, they’re disgruntled that they have been working without a contract since March.

Because of the shaky economy, I feel like the drivers should be happy to have a job, especially when others are losing jobs right now. It seems unfair that others I know who have been working without a contract, or whose salaries have been frozen for the past two years don’t have a union that they can talk to try and negotiate with, but even if they did and they decided to strike, their strike would not impact the city as this strike has. People with limited mobility are literally trapped in their homes. I wonder what people who don’t own a car, live too far from work to walk and who can’t afford to take a taxi (assuming they can actually find one) are doing. I like the idea of making public transportation an essential city service.

In our family, we’ve been managing pretty well. Thankfully, we have two automobiles so it’s just a matter of planning well before we leave home to make sure that everyone can find a way to their respective places of employment and catch a ride home. It means that people sometimes arrive hours early for work, or stay late, but at least we don’t have to walk an hour in each direction like some are doing, or pay cab fares that are 20 times the bus fare just to get around. My dad and I commute together and that’s been interesting, to say the least. I found out that he’s a backseat driver and he found out that I don’t like to change lanes at the last minute and would rather get in the lane I need to be in first thing. I was even lucky with parking downtown for a while: I had access to a parking pass that allowed me to park underground (which was great because I didn’t have to scrape snow off the car before heading home) but those days are gone. Now, a kind coworker lets me park at her house, a 15 minute walk from work. The walk was lovely the first two days but now it’s a bit annoying, especially after a long day of work. But I don’t have to pay for parking! Another good thing is that significantly lower gas prices make the long commutes that much more pleasant.

I want the strike to be over, but I will be irked if the strike ends because the city decided to give in to the strikers’ demands. This is because it will prompt the question: why didn’t you do that two weeks ago and save us all from this? Why did I have to get 30 minutes of exercise each day for nothing??

Filed under: Mundane by jummy