Press Releases

I would first like to thank the members of ATU Canada for putting their confidence in me for a second three year term. It has been my honour to serve you through these difficult and trying times. I am honoured to continue to be serving you once again. It is the strength and perseverance of our membership that has gotten me through this and will continue to see our union through this global pandemic. As President, I will continue to fight for the things that matter like priority access to voluntary COVID-19 vaccinations for transit workers, permanent operational funding for transit agencies, and fighting attempts at privatization of our public transit system.

ATU Canada extends its solidarity and support with the over 1,100 dockworkers at the Port of Montreal who are scheduled to go on strike this morning. Their local union, CUPE Local 375, gave their 72-hour strike notice to their employer, the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) last week after the employer opted to lengthen their work shifts by almost two hours from five hours and twenty minutes to seven hours without negotiation or notice. In addition to this, dockworkers have been without an employment contract since 2018. On Sunday morning, the Minister of Labour, Filomena Tassi announced that the federal government would attempt to force dockworkers back to work through federal legislation saying that all options had been exhausted.

ATU Canada is holding a press conference this Thursday to announce escalated action amidst continued government silence over prioritization of transit workers for voluntary vaccinations and a growing number of outbreaks of COVID-19 at transit agencies. Since as early as last year, ATU Canada has been demanding that the Ontario provincial government and governments across the country prioritize transit workers but have been met with little to no response.

ATU Canada National President, John Di Nino expressed his disappointment and frustration with the most recent federal budget that he says missed an important and historic opportunity to save public transit agencies currently in crisis across the country. Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, transit agencies have faced huge losses in revenue due to a drop in ridership.

Today, it was announced by Barrie Transit that an outbreak had occurred among its drivers. According to media reports, there have been five confirmed cases out of a total of between ten and twelve cases, the other cases have not yet been confirmed. 

This afternoon, Premier Ford announced that the province of Ontario was set to go into another state of emergency, effective at midnight. This latest announcement once again falls short of protecting transit professionals and their families.