DriveTest strike enters month 3

Posted By COLIN MCKIM, THE PACKET AND TIMES

Posted 2 months ago

The Drive Test examination centre on Laclie Street in Orillia remains closed as a strike by employees enters its third month.

However, on Monday the centre at 520 Byrne Dr. in Barrie will be open for people waiting to take written tests in all licence classes.

The centre will also resume road tests, but only for commercial licences.

This is good news for truck driving schools, such as Crossroads Training Academy in Barrie, where about 40 students have been waiting for their road tests and 30 for written tests.

"That's wonderful news," said Diane Austin, co-owner of Crossroads.

She thinks pressure from the Truck Training Schools Association may have led to the partial re-opening of some driver examination centres after three months of deadlock at the bargaining table.

The Barrie Drive Test centre is will be one of seven centres open across the province offering partial service.

"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 in a news release.

"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."

Austin said she was concerned her students will have to cross the picket line in Barrie to take written or road tests.

"We have a good relationship with the people there."

But Orillia driving examiner Bill Tinslay said he and others from Orillia will go to Barrie to bolster the picket line there.

"They should expect some inconvenience," he said.

"I don't picket just so they can see my pretty face."

Tinslay, who has worked part-time for five years, says employees, now represented by the United Steel Workers, are fighting British-based company Serco to prevent the erosion of part-time hours.

In the past, he could count on three days a week, adding up to about 44 hours every two weeks.

Under the proposed contract, he might only get 10 hours a week, potentially in two-hour blocks over five days.

"They could call me in today and send me home after two hours."

Part-timers could also be assigned full-time hours in the summer, then cut way back the rest of the year, so they are not eligible for full-time benefits, he said.

Tinslay says the strike is benefitting seniors over 80 who are not having to take retests, while hurting those 16 to 18 waiting to get licences in the first place.

"They're penalizing the G1 and G2 drivers, the people who don't vote."

DriveTest has look for ways to resolve the ongoing dispute with the USW, Dalglish said.

"On Nov. 1, DriveTest presented the USW bargaining team with a final offer to settle the strike. On the recommendation of the USW, the unionized DriveTest employees voted to reject that offer."

Tinslay said strike will not end until the government steps in.

"There's no way what they're offering us now, we will accept," he said.

Customers who hold a license that expired after Aug. 24 due to the need for a retest are still covered by the automatic license extension put in place by the Ministry of Transportation. Therefore, these customers do not need to come to a DriveTest Centre at this time. DriveTest will not have the need or capacity to serve these customers until the strike ends.

Up-to-date details regarding this partial resumption of service are available at www.DriveTest.ca.

cmckim@orilliapacket.com