April 24, 2020 at 12:00 PM
A message from Jerry Dias, Unifor National President
Dear members,
I’m writing to invite you to the Online Virtual Rally for Transit, to take place at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, April 25.
We learned this week that the regional transit body in Vancouver issued layoff notices to nearly 1,200 Unifor members working as transit operators and skilled trades maintenance staff. Transit authorities in other regions have also begin to discuss significant reductions to staffing levels.
Transit service cutbacks are a terrible idea. For workers, for transit riders, for local economies. Under the current circumstances, we know that tens of thousands of essential services workers are depending on public transit to get them to and from work. We also know that for most of these COVID-19 heroes, there is no other option for their commute.
Reliable public transit must not be seen not as a luxury service to be scaled back during a temporary revenue shortfall. Instead, our transit system should be viewed as a vital link in the pandemic response; an indispensable cog in the larger machinery fighting COVID-19 on a daily basis.
The answer lies with the federal and provincial governments. Other critical transportation sectors, such as the airline sector, have been granted access to federal emergency programs to help keep Canadians working. We are calling on governments to immediately take similar measures for transit. We owe it to transit workers and we owe it to the COVID-19 heroes.
On Saturday at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern join me and Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle on Unifor’s Facebook page as we hold an online #PeopleNeedTransit virtual rally. Please share the attached graphic in your networks and help make this rally a success.
In solidarity,
Jerry Dias
National President
#PeopleNeedTransit Rally Graphic