Hamilton’s transit workers say there will be a legal strike of the HSR transit system effective Thursday if the city doesn’t come back with a new and better offer before then. ATU Local 107 members agreed with union negotiators Sunday who recommended the rejection of the city’s last contract offer from Oct. 24. Union president Eric Tuck says the biggest issue is obtaining wages that keep pace with inflation, which he claims the latest offer doesn’t do. “Our members were infuriated with the latest proposal as it falls short of inflationary pressures and the cost of living,” Tuck said Sunday night. Transit workers voted 94 per cent to reject the city’s last offer.

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada

By Scott Scheffer

University of Southern California shuttle bus drivers have petitioned for a union election which is now scheduled for March 23. Graduate students at USC won union representation within weeks of the successful strike by their UCLA counterparts. USC’s shuttle drivers are now gearing up to make it a trifecta.

In July 1957, BBC News reported that a strike by regional busmen had turned nasty.

"…There have been violent scenes around Britain as the strike by busmen in the English regions enters its fourth day. In some instances strike-breaking drivers were attacked and vehicles vandalised, including those with passengers on board. In Derbyshire one driver, Basil Flint, had to be taken to hospital after being hit in the stomach with an iron bar. Another driver, Harry Davies, said he was overpowered and pulled from his bus on the road between Hemsworth and Wakefield in Yorkshire…"

Mr Davies told the BBC that, having been dragged out of his bus, he was punched in the face and kicked in the stomach, and while he was lying on the ground, his attackers smashed the bus lights and windows.

A spokesman for the Transport and General Workers’ Union distanced the union from the violence, although perhaps not all that convincingly, stating, "I have no comment on that because I have heard it only from the Press but I am sure our members are not involved…"

Around 100 000 bus employees from provincial companies were demanding a one pound per week pay rise, however employers were offering three shillings, which, they argued, in light of recent pay rises, was keeping up with cost of living increases.

Unfortunately for the strikers, their actions appeared to have little impact. Train travel increased by 25%, there was an upsurge in carpooling, and many employers provided coaches to shuttle their workers to and from railway stations.

The Manchester Guardian reported,

"...The busmen's strike erupted into outbreaks of violence in towns and villages all over Britain yesterday but it had little effect on industry. Factories, offices, and mines were virtually fully staffed almost everywhere..."

The Guardian also took a strong editorial line against the violence;

"…The men employed to drive and conduct provincial buses have the right of all free men to withdraw their labour if they want to, but anyone who wishes to take a coach or lorry load of passengers through a strike-bound town has an equal right to go about his business peaceably. The violence with which the busmen's pickets in some places have tried, and in some cases succeeded, in driving other people off the road is not only unlawful but alien to every tradition of decent trade unionism. A strike gives no man or group of men a licence for banditry…British trade unions have a long and honourable record of conducting industrial disputes without violence, and it is as much in the interests of trade unionism as of the rest of society that attempts to use violence during a strike should be put down with the utmost firmness..."

The matter was referred to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal, which awarded the bus employees a rise of 11 shillings, and everyone went back to work.

We only get to finish our shift once we have successfully escaped😳

Fortune Cookie: "An Important person will offer you aid."

Bus: *arrives at the bus stop late, but at the exact moment I am walking by*

Me: "Ah. Just as the cookie foretold."

This is more of a fragment of a thought, and also, who the fuck cares what people on Reddit say or think anyway? But SO many people on Reddit actively hate bus-riders.

The underlying philosophy seems to be that not having your own single-occupancy-vehicle makes you childish and stupid; if you ever ask someone for a ride, you are demanding and a terrible friend/person; if you ask a genuine question about riding the bus, all responses will make fun of you or speak desperately to how shit buses are and why in the fuck would you ever deign to ride one? The only exception, of course, being r/fuckcars.

Honestly, Reddit feels like a concentration of suburbanites with an allergy to ever needing anything from anyone. It's just screams loneliness.

Unions representing Quebec school bus drivers say the start of the school year could be rough -- many of them have yet to sign new contracts with employers and say there could be strikes this fall. Quebec gave between 15 to 30 per cent in additional subsidies to school boards and school service centres last year, who in turn negotiate deals with private school bus companies. While several employers have signed new contracts with drivers and passed on that extra cash through wage increases, others are still in talks. Union leaders say offering higher wages is the best way to attract new drivers. It’s common for workers to make between $17 and $19 per hour, and a workday might only be a few hours split between the morning and evening rides. Add that to the regular stresses of transporting children, and it can be difficult to retain staff. Josée Dubé, president of the CSN’s school transport division, says companies should be prepared to offer at least $25 per hour.

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada

Just enjoying the image of a newborn baby driving a bus.

<<<<< bus drivers that do not give a FUCK. is it the indy 500? is it a… city street? who knows! Traffic law is a suggestion and red lights are for pussies. Sparkle on.

PSA: thank your bus drivers

"Bus Drivers Carry Fight To Ottawa," Windsor Star. December 5, 1942. Page 5 & 8. ----- 16 Laid Off. Many More Will Be Because of 50-Mile Limit on Each Trip ---- Incensed over what the term a direct attempt to destroy the bus transportation business between 40 and 45 employees of the Canadian and Toronto Greyhound Bus Lines facing loss of employment as a result of government transit control order, planned today to appeal to the government for removal of arbitrary restrictions.

DRIVERS LAID OFF Sixteen by drivers employed by the Greyhound company were laid off yesterday, following a meeting attended by 75 employes at which Manferd Burleigh, general manager of the bus company here, announced that government restriction had forced curtailment of operation.

Within the next few days the number of men laid off is expected to be increased to from 40 to 45 employees.

Confirmation of the lay-off was given The Star today by S. L. Springsteen, KC president of the Canadian and Toronto Greyhound Bus Lines. Mr. Springsteen stated that he and other officers of the company had been in Toronto this week to discuss the situation affecting bus transportation with Norman D. Wilson of Toronto, Ontario Regional Trans. Controller.

NOT SATISFACTORY Mr. Springsteen, declined to discuss details of the discussions carried on in Toronto, but it was apparent that insofar as the bus companies were concerned, the conferences had not been satisfactory.

Employes said today that immediate discontinuation of service between London, Ont, and Toronto had been ordered by the transit controller.

At the same time, an exemption from the 50-mile restriction on buses operating between Windsor and London, Ont., permitting trips of 70 miles,was removed by order of the transit controller yesterday. As a result, the bus companies were returned to a limit of 50 miles on a trip.

A. E. Cook, bus driver here and a committee member of the Western Ontario Bus Employes Association, declared that the transit controllers order was "a deliberate attempt to destroy the bus transportation business."

SEES DEFINITE WASTE He based his remarks on the fact that the 50-mile limit was an arbitrary figure established without consideration for the convenience of bus passengers. He said it did not save any gasoline or rubber but caused a definite waste.

Supporting his latter statement, he declared that passengers were at off buses at the completion of the 30-mile limit allowed by the controller and were picked up by private automobiles which had to travel from the centre to where the passengers were let off and then turned about and followed the empty bus into the cry carrying the passengers who were denied passage on the bus.

It was explained that passengers en route to Chatham, including many soldiers, were let off at the end of 50 miles from Windsor, at a point known as Drake Road. Soldiers then had to either hitch hike into Chatham or walk, while the bus proceeded empty into Chatham.

G. Morand, a driver for many years, normally employed on long runs, and he had taken shorter runs at less money, because he wouldn't insult his normal long-run passengers by putting them off the bus at the end of 50 miles.

He explained that the Toronto and Buffalo runs were cancelled forthwith and without warning yesterday. The two Buffalo runs affected six men,he said, and the three Toronto runs affected nine men.

Many American passengers took advantage of the Detroit to Buffalo in because it offered a shorter route south of Lake Erie in the United States. Now under the transit order, persons served by the Buffalo run are forced to travel via the United States, he explained. OFFER REFUSED LH. Mindon, despatcher, said the bus companies had offered to the gasoline and tires from the United States on the Buffalo and Toronto runs but the offer had been reused. The offer had been made to provide service for American travelers.

He said it as apparent consequently that the Transit Controller was not concerned with providing service.

Insofar as the London, Ont, run was concerned, the bus company was told by the Transit Controller that the run must be maintained However,Mr. McIndoe said, under the 50-mile restriction, this is strictly an inconvenience to the public and a waste of gasoline."

NO CO-OPERATION Mr. McIndoe said that George S. Gray, Dominion Transit Controller, would not give any objective of the savings in gasoline and rubber sought by the imposition of the 50-mile restriction. Had the Transit Controller told the bus companies what their objective was, he contended, the companies as a result of their experience, would have been able to work out a satisfactory service to the public.

One of the best things is just talking to bus drivers. Bus drivers are just good people:

I remember a super cold day one guy talking about how excited he was to go home and have soup. It was clear that this was some studio Ghibli level stuff.

I scanned my pass and a driver went (a little over dramatically) “You use A CANE?” and I just kinda sigh and go ‘yeah’. He immediately switches into a Normal Tone ‘Me too!’ (Incredible) And then shows me his cane on my way out and says ‘see! I wasn’t even joking!’. (We were alone on the bus so he wasn’t drawing any attention or anything)

I briefly lost my pass and was trying to count change and the bus driver waved me off and said I was fine. The stop was on campus, every student automatically gets a pass etc. I got on the train and realized I did not have a ticket bc I didn’t get one on the bus and I’m like. This is the ONE TIME I ride without a pass. Be calm. It will be fine. So the cops walk onto the car to look for a runaway kid and decide to check the car for fares to idk justify their existence. I was like ‘oh is my student ID ok I left my pass’ and they were like ‘no’. Trains do not have stations onboard to pay with change. I did not say a word about that bus driver. (Bus drivers, way more compassionate than actual cops)

One called dispatch because the bus I was waiting for was 30 min late (turns out way early and blew through the stops). Like tonight another one just asking about my research and knowing the names of the other people on the bus. Yeah.

my bus driver forgot about me.

so he dropped my friend of first even though usually im dropped off first and i just thought he was taking a different route. well i realized he forgot me when he proceeded to pass my stop. and he dropped off some kids and it was close to where my dads is so i was like ill just get off here and go to my dads and ask him to drive me to my moms. well i didnt do that cause i thought maybe hell realize im still here. he didnt. so i got off at the 2nd to last stop and walked the rest of the way home and when i got off he was like omg im so sorry. like excuse me! but i didnt wanna say anything or make him feel bad cause hes usually really nice to me. but now im tired and hungry and am just a little mad at my bus driver.

The little wave that bus drivers give each other honestly brings me so much joy