– The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1415 is questioning whether outsourcing one of their units, Barrie Transit, is a long term viable solution for the problems faced by transit users and taxpayers in Barrie. The union would like politicians to address this question before the October 2014 elections.
The main concern with the outsourcing of Barrie Transit is the potential negative effects it will have on the transit users and taxpayers of Barrie who need a dependable and affordable transit system. Recent reports indicate that Barrie Transit ridership has dropped 8% from August 2013 to July of 2014 while costing the City 10% more to operate.
The City of Barrie is currently going ahead with an outsourcing model tied to a Public Private Partnership to build a new transit garage and to grant a long term contract to the P3 partner to manage city transit operations for the next twenty years.
Public Private Partnerships or P3 have been described in a video produced by ATU Local 113 in Toronto as designed to change the values and processes of demographic governments. Transit users and taxpayers in Barrie need to know that the agenda behind P3’s are fundamentally secretive, unaccountable and more often than not, extremely risky.
Moe Al-Khafajy, President of ATU Local 1415 said that outsourcing comes with a promise to save government money however what the public doesn’t know is that outsourcing usually ends up being much more expensive than in-house services for governments.
“It only leads to negative consequences,” said Al-Khafajy “The goal for outsourcing is for private companies to maximize profits, however, and this often means cutting corners to reduce costs – therefore, this will harm the quality of service and maintenance.”
The Amalgamated Transit Union is concerned about the long term consequences of outsourcing of transit operations and the effect that will have on transit users, taxpayers and on their drivers. Outsourcing leads to reductions in service, longer wait times for transit services, route consolidation and cutbacks. In addition there are safety concerns as part of the private companies’ cutbacks, drivers are being forced to work longer hours which threatens the safety of all passengers.
ATU is calling everyone to join their campaign to raise the question of the long term viability of continued outsourcing of Barrie Transit operations. Service reliability and the safety of Barrie transit users is a priority so let us all work together to build a safe, reliable and cost effective transit solution for the City of Barrie.
About The Amalgamated Transit Union – Founded in 1892, the ATU is comprised of over 190,000 members, including: metropolitan, interstate and school bus drivers; paratransit, light rail, subway, streetcar, and ferry boat operators; mechanics and other maintenance workers; clerks, baggage handlers, municipal employees and others.
No comments:
Post a Comment