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The head of the union representing Ottawa’s transit operators is warning about workplace pressures after service on Lines 1 and 4 was interrupted on the weekend due to staffing issues.
OC Transpo halted service on Line 1 Saturday night because of a temporary shortage of the controller staff needed for safe operations, according to a weekend memo from newly minted transit GM Rick Leary.
Service on Line 4 to the airport was also interrupted earlier that day due to unspecified “reduced staffing availability,” Leary wrote in his memo to city council.
By Sunday morning, trains were running again on both lines.
Saturday’s shutdowns illustrate the tight staffing margins at the transit service, said Noah Vineberg, who represents OC Transpo operators and mechanics as president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 279.
The O-Train network is currently operating with 75 per cent of the required amount of operators, Vineberg said.
Those understaffing issues likely came to a head on Saturday, Vineberg said.
“For whatever reason, they were missing one or two controllers that they were depending to arrive that night. And sometimes that’s the result of overburdening over pushing and expecting too much from a understaffed workforce,” he said.
Saturday’s shutdowns highlight the tight staffing margins that OC Transpo is operating under, says ATU 279 president Noah Vineberg. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)
Vineberg said controllers fall under another union, CUPE 5500, and not ATU 278. But staffing issues across the transit service are interlinked, he said, as if there aren’t enough controllers, operators can be called upon to fill the gap.
CBC reached out to CUPE 5500, but did not hear back by deadline.
‘We got to make their job better’
CBC also reached out to OC Transpo and the city to respond to Vineberg’s comments, but no interviews were provided.
Instead, the city pointed to Leary’s weekend memo.
“We appreciate our customers’ patience as we work to stabilize our staffing levels,” Leary said in the memo.
Leary did touch on staffing and workplace morale during an extensive sit-down interview with CBC last week, during which he brought up his own years spent as a train operator and an ATU member.
“My heart and soul goes out to frontline employees,” he said. “We got to make their job better, right? So they can do a better job and feel supported.”
WATCH | Leary’s sit-down interview with CBC Ottawa:
Rick Leary sits down with CBC during his first weeks as head of OC Transpo
OC Transpo’s new general manager told CBC Ottawa city hall reporter Arthur White-Crummey about his plans to address the issues plaguing Ottawa’s transit system.Union raising the flag
Leary also said during that interview he was still assessing whether OC Transpo is appropriately resourced to provide the level of service that customers expect.
“I’m not ready to ask for anything yet until I’m comfortable that I know what my ask is going to be,” Leary said.
As for Vineberg, after this past weekend, he said he hopes the service realizes things need to change.
“This is more of a raising of the flag and a warning to let everybody know this is a operation that is running on thin margins,” he said. “And these things will happen if you don’t have the proper staff.”