Escape Hatches and Warmer Weather
As the weather improves, we get numerous inquiries from Members on the ability to open the hatches in the front/back the buses for more air flow. In the past management has declined to approve this request, stating it can be unsafe to climb on seats to open the hatches, etc.
We will be bringing forward a query on whether a device can be installed to open and close the hatch, negating the need for the Operator to manually open it. We will update the Membership on any movement on that issue.
CDLC – S’ean-Gillen Memorial Scholarship
We are fortunate to be affiliated with several great organizations. One of which is the Calgary & District Labour Council. One of the benefits of such an affiliation is that our Members and their children are eligible for their two annual scholarships of $2,500.00. The deadline for their scholarship is June 1 of each calendar year. Members in good standing of Local 583 and their dependents are welcome to enter. Visit www.thecdlc.ca/education for more details!
Call Ins – Do I Need A Rep and How to Obtain One
ATU Local 583 recommends Members bring a Union rep to any and all call-in meetings with management.
A representative is available to you to be sure appropriate questions are being asked, to ask questions on behalf of the Union/Member and to take notes. These notes are very helpful to have on file as it is a written record of what occurred in the meeting.
To have a rep with you at a call in, whenever possible please inform the office at least a day ahead with the following information: your full name, the date, time and garage the call-in taking place at and the reason for the call in. You can also use booking@atu583.com to send in this information.
Code Blues
We spoke in our last Monthly Insights about the OSIRT Committee and its main purpose being to ideally prevent assaults on our Members. We have since instituted an internal system wherein we intend to contact each Member who has experienced an assault in the workplace. With our best intentions in place, we may still not receive timely information on an assault, so if you have been a victim of a code blue and you would like to reach out to the office for advice or just to go over what happened, please do not hesitate to do so. If an Officer is not immediately available, they will get back to you promptly.
We would also like to reinforce that we are ready and willing to support a Member through the process of charging an apprehended assailant. More than that, we would genuinely appreciate the opportunity to be there for a Member in such a situation. This includes going to court and utilizing the Union’s resources to ensure the outcome reflects the Criminal Code.
Everyone deserves to be safe at work.
International Women’s Day
IWD was March 8th, 2021 and we want to take another opportunity to appreciate and thank all of the women throughout history and present day who continue to advocate for women’s rights, equality and unionism. We are grateful to you all.
Are You In? Campaign Reminder
In February we featured our “Are You In?” campaign which aims to build our power by having Members stand together to support a progressive slate of candidates for the upcoming civic election. This is an extremely important thing that Members can do right now to support the Union and most importantly their coworkers and themselves! To date approximately a third of the Membership has signed our pledge and we are in the process of training campaign leaders to coordinate the distribution of our next step – which is a petition we hope to get at least half our Members to sign.
Your active participation in this campaign DOES MATTER. You can start by stating the workplace issue you most want to see resolved and by signing our pledge HERE or obtaining a hard copy from a Steward in the workplace.
ATU Local 583 – Keep Updated with the Local
Since the beginning of the term in January 2020, we have been focused on communication with the Membership like never before. Early in 2020 we started a Facebook page and not long after we launched our ATU Local 583 Telegram Group.
Most of you are probably familiar with Facebook, but Telegram may be a new mode of communication for you. It’s a messaging app that allows us to have a nearly endless amount of people in the same group for mass distribution of information. More than that, it allows our Members a direct line to Officers to have questions answered. The answers are then available for all members of the group to see.
Our group is for ATU Local 583 Members only and Officers or Admin are active several times each day/each week to resolve queries.
If you’d like to be added please send your full name and cell phone number to Harry Lew at 403-404-4564 and he will see that you’re added.
Overcrowding and Overloads
We recently teamed up with a media company to push out information on Facebook about overloads and the subsequent overcrowding on Transit. Since the release of the first two posts a couple weeks ago we have had a massive amount of feedback and our post has been seen by nearly 50,000 people.
This means citizens of Calgary are taking notice. Further numbers tell us over 11,000 people have clicked the link to take them to the main article over on Calgary’s Future’s website. This contains links to contact City Council and the Mayor with ease, so that those becoming aware of this issue can share their concern. The same concerns we ourselves have been sharing since the pandemic started.
If you have not yet seen the posts, we urge you to check out our Facebook page and to click on the article. It may seem like a very small act but when thousands of us are doing it, our strength in numbers emerges and changes can be made.
WCB
Some of you may have seen the recent CBC article on WCB changes implemented by the Provincial Government. In it they discuss the ceasing of the employer’s legal obligation to rehire and accommodate an injured worker.
For now, we do not anticipate any changes for our members. Some of these changes to WCB appear to be against the Canadian Charter of Rights and there will likely be legal challenges.
If you have a concern regarding your own WCB please call the office at 403-258-1258 Ext 0.
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We are always working to disperse information that the Membership deems pertinent. If you have a topic you’d like us to discuss in an upcoming issue of Monthly Insights please email jacinda@atu583.com
