Press Releases

This afternoon, Premier Ford announced that the province of Ontario was set to go into another lockdown along with a stay-at-home order, effective Thursday, January 14th. While we support more measures to try and keep Ontarians safe, this latest announcement once again falls short of protecting transit professionals and their families.

ATU Canada National President, John Di Nino is angered by Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s statement earlier today. While the government says they are extending childcare benefits, they failed to include transit workers, who have provided a critical service during the pandemic.

It is no doubt that 2020 has been a difficult year for transit professionals across Canada. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have faced declining ridership, the threat of massive service cuts, job losses and our livelihoods being at risk - yet you have persevered through it all. Your important work continues to move frontline workers and transit riders throughout our country so that they can, like you, continue to provide and access some of the critical services we need.

President of the Amalgamated Transit Union in Canada, John Di Nino, is calling upon the federal and provincial governments to give priority vaccine access to transit workers as the first batches of the COVID-19 vaccines start to be doled out today in Canada. Transit professionals are some of the most vulnerable when it comes to the COVID-19 virus as a result of their interaction with millions of riders per day. The high volume of interaction has led to more than 3500 ATU transit workers being infected in both Canada and the US.