The University of Western Ontario is clashing with its staff and faculty unions about whether the shuttle-bus service being offered to students is approved by the striking transit union.
UWO’s staff and faculty unions oppose the university’s shuttle-bus service during the city-wide transit strike, calling it a “strike-breaking activity.”
The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 741 has been on strike since last Nov. 16 after negotiations with the London Transit Commission (LTC) fell through.
UWO responded to the strike by offering different commuting options to students and staff members, including the Western Community Van program. Volunteer drivers shuttle 47 rented vans to campus from pre-designated drop-off and pick-up depots. So far, the program appears to have been a success because demand continues to rise – by Nov. 18, 600 people were using the service.
“We definitely do not, in any way, consider it to be strike-breaking activity because there’s no way we’re even remotely close to being able to duplicate – and nor are we trying to duplicate – a transit service, here,” said Gitta Kulczycki, the university’s vice-president (resources and operations).
The controversy is causing confusion and both sides make contradictory claims that they have support from the transit union.
Kulczycki said the president of the university’s student council and a university senior official met with members of the transit union before the strike occurred to review commuting options if an agreement between the ATU and LTC could not be reached. At the time, there was no indication that the union had a problem with the alternatives being planned.
“They knew in advance – and were comfortable with – what we were going to be doing,” she said. “They were comfortable with the service we had been planning to provide in the interests of safety and the academic work of our students.”
But Regna Darnell, president of the UWO Faculty Association (UWOFA) said she disagrees. In an e-mail interview, Darnell said the volunteers are seen as replacement workers who are undermining the “effectiveness of the strike as a withdrawal of services. They are replacing [bus drivers].”
“We have been supported by the ATU in our recent, narrowly averted, librarians and archivists strike and may need their support again in the future,” Darnell wrote.
In lieu of the community van program, the UWOFA is encouraging the use of car pools and walking.
“We share the university’s concern for safety and non-disruption of students’ programs. Our only objection is to the strike-breaking vans,” Darnell wrote.
The ATU Local 471 could not be reached for comment.
Kulczycki said it is unlikely the university will stop the program even if the faculty associations disapprove. She said the students’ responses to the university’s efforts have been mostly positive.
“I’ve actually had passengers in my vehicle . . . and they are so grateful. So grateful,” said Kulczycki, who participates in the Flag-a-Ride program as well as the community van service.
“It’s obviously not a great thing that we have a transit strike going on, but the positive side of it is that it pulls the community together,” she said.