DriveTest resumes for some
Posted By NATHAN TAYLOR, THE PACKET AND TIMES
Posted 2 months ago
DriveTest has resumed partial operations at select offices after picketing employees rejected the latest offer.
"It is time to take action to minimize the impact this strike is having on so many Ontarians," Paul Dalglish, managing director of DriveTest, said. "Before today, we were focused on negotiating an agreement for settlement of the strike, but our employees' rejection of our offer means we now need to focus on the resumption of our services without those employees."
Management employees resumed partial operations yesterday, a day after the union members' votes were tallied to show 78% rejected the offer.
Six centres -- Brampton, Toronto Port Union, Ottawa Canotek, Kitchener, North Bay and Thunder Bay -- were to be opened.
Services being offered are written tests for all classes of licence, road tests for commercial classified licences only, and out-of-province and out-of-country licence exchanges.
United Steelworkers Local 9511 president Jim Young accused DriveTest of "discriminating" by only offering services to certain people and he said picketers will "make every effort to minimize the services" they provide. They will do "everything under the law" that they can do, Young said.
Dalglish wasn't concerned about that.
"Fortunately, the law provides us with sufficient protection that we are able to conduct business," he said. "There may be some delays driving into a centre, but generally we do not anticipate picket actions causing any long-term problems."
A government-appointed mediator is involved in the situation, and Dalglish said DriveTest has invited the union back to the bargaining table: "We have told the USW we are interested in going back to the table whenever they are."
The company "had to prioritize who we serve and the services we provide to hopefully help those who have been impacted the most by this strike," he said.
Read Conley is in that group.
The owner of Crossroads Truck Training Academy in Barrie has about 50 people on the wait list for a drive test and had to lay off all but one of his instructors.
He will recall his trainers accordingly when he knows where he can send the trainees for testing.
"We'll definitely get some flow happening," he said.
Conley isn't impressed with how all parties involved have handled the situation.
"Nobody is bargaining in good faith," he said, adding, "I applaud (DriveTest) for attempting something, but it's not enough."
He also blasted the province for not intervening in the strike, which began in mid-August.
"I'm mystified as to why the government let it come down like this," he said.
The province has said it won't intervene in the strike, as it is between a union and a private company, but "it affects the general populous of the province," Conley said.
"You've got 590 people holding the entire province hostage. That's immoral," he said. "I own my own company and I'm going to be bankrupt if they don't go back to work."
DriveTest has agreed to more than 50 collective-agreement changes requested by the union, but the list keeps getting longer, Dalglish said.
The latest requests include a "total ban on supervisors doing bargaining-unit work" and having 100 part-time employees converted to full-time, he said, adding they are not practical requests.
ntaylor@orilliapacket.com
