Benoit Pichette-Sarault, present before members of the Gatineau City Council on Tuesday evening, expressed outrage at the service currently offered by the public transport company.
“At the moment the STO is completely failing in its main task, which is to transport its citizens,” lamented Mr. Pichette-Sarault.
For several weeks, the transport company has been reporting on the social network X every day that it has to cancel several bus trips. Some local users complain about overcrowded buses, which then lead to longer journeys.
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Several STO trips are canceled every day.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Emmanuelle Poisson
The shortage of drivers would not be independent of the situation. For his part, Mr. Pichette-Sarault also points out the ongoing negotiations.
He points out that the collective bargaining agreement for STO drivers expired almost four years ago and calls on the city to adjust our working conditions to retain staff and help the STO provide acceptable service to these citizens.
“Of course you will tell me it is because of the labor shortage,” Mr. Pichette-Sarault told elected officials. This labor shortage is directly related to our collective agreement, he emphasized.
The union representative pointed out that STO drivers have not received a raise in almost five years.
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For several weeks, the STO has been reporting daily on the social network X that it has had to cancel several bus trips. According to the drivers’ union STO, 50 to 125 trips are canceled every day. (archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / Patrick Louiseize
These drivers survived the pandemic, he recalled. They are currently going through the economic crisis with inflation at its peak, he added. This puts a huge burden on our drivers’ shoulders.
Invited to speak further about the situation the day after his intervention, Benoit Pichette-Sarault emphasized by email that the public interest in the message I sent to the city council was to reach out to the population, above all but to inform users between 50 and 125 trips per day are being canceled and these cancellations are largely due to staff shortages.
We will not comment on working conditions and negotiations, he continued. Please be aware that we do everything we can to offer our members professional working conditions. We do not want to negotiate publicly at the moment.
Several factors play a role
In a written response sent on Wednesday evening, the transport company’s management replied that the labor shortage was neither specific to the STO nor related to the renewal of the collective agreement.
The STO explains that several factors influenced the pace of negotiations on both the union and employer sides. Let us think in particular of the new union accreditation, the division of the union into two groups of union members, the changes in the union board and in the overall management of the STO.
A service, not an expense, says the union
Mr. Pichette-Sarault urged the city to view the STO as an investment and not an expense.
STO Board President Jocelyn Blondin agreed that the city’s contribution to the STO budget is not an expense but rather a service to citizens.
We hope things turn out for the better […] and that we can put an end to the driver shortage at the same time.
However, Mr. Blondin declined to comment on the negotiations because they were still ongoing, he recalled.
For its part, the airline said it was aware of issues related to trip cancellations or traffic.
“This fall, due to labor challenges, we optimized the deployment of drivers to have more capacity where the need is more urgent, such as on key routes,” wrote José Lafleur, public affairs manager at the STO.
Since the new fall service came into force on August 28, the STO has been in observation mode as travel habits emerge on the road network, both by public transport and by car, she continued.
To do this, the STO monitors customer and driver comments, smart card validations, automatic passenger counters, travel times, congestion, the number of cars in park-and-ride parking lots, etc.
With information from Patrick Foucault, Rebecca Kwan and Emmanuelle Poisson