Push to call transit 'essential' fails; Ottawa bus strike continues

A transit strike continued in Ottawa Wednesday afternoon after a motion to make transit an essential service failed to gain the support of Ottawa city council.

The motion was brought forward byInnesward Coun.Rainer Bloess Wednesday afternoon and would have given council special powers to order transit employees back to work, but was voted down.

More than 2,200 OC Transpo drivers, dispatchers and maintenance workers walked off the job at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

"We apologize, but during the current transit strike, bus and O-Train service is not operating," said a statement on OC Transpo's website. "The City of Ottawa is doing all we can to reach a fair settlement," the statement added.

Heavy traffic clogged Ottawa roads Wednesday morning after the strike began in the middle of a winter storm that dumped about 30 centimetres of snow on the region.

Andre Cornellier, president of theAmalgamated Transit Union local thatrepresents the striking workers, said Wednesday that the mainbargaining issue is amove by the city to take away senior drivers' right to choose their own shifts. The city says itis trying to stop scheduling practices that rack up unnecessary overtime costs.

Cornelliersaid theunionisn't willing to resume talks with the city until the city backs down on that issue.

A federal mediator on Tuesday tried unsuccessfully to get both sides back to the table after the union on Monday rejected what the city called its "final offer."

Last week, the transit union voted 98 per cent in favour of a strike if contract issues weren't resolved by the strike deadline.

By the time Wednesday's morning rush was underway, about 100 striking workers represented by union Local 279 had set up picket lines outside city hall. They chanted, sang and stopped cars for about two minutes each at the Laurier and Elgin street entrances.

Cornellier said that the mood on the picket line has been positive so far.

"People know what the cause is and people are willing to stand and walk and do what they need to do to get that block booking off the table," he said. "We're prepared to stand out here for as long as it takes."

The city is offering workers a wage increase of more than seven per cent over three years.

Bus driver Rob Vye said there was one incident on the picket line that police had to deal with, in which a driver struck someone on thepicket line, but there were no injuries.

Many commuters who normally take the bus got upearly.

Sam Barrleft hishome near the airport at 5 a.m.

"I've been walking for 2 hours to get to work now. It's pretty tough," Barrtold CBC's Steve Fischer after meeting him on Bank Street in the Glebe.

He was heading to the Elgin Street Diner downtown,the rendezvous point for him and his colleagues, who do electrical work.

Some people took advantage of the fact that the city is allowing commuters to use OC Transpo park-and-ride lots for carpooling, including Natalie Merziotis, who waitedat Fallowfield stationin Barrhaven for her boss to pick her up shortly before dawn. She held no grudge against the bus drivers.

"What can you do? They got the right to do what they want to do, so you just got to live with it, I guess," she said as snowflakes gathered in her hair.

Other commutersshovelled knee-deep snow off their driveways, then sat trappedin trafficfor more than an hour.

CBC's Lynn Douris started her commute from Kanata at 7 a.m. and found the Queensway already severely backed up.

"Traffic has been incredibly slow, not even 10 km/h," she reported around 8:10 a.m., when she remained on the highway.

However, on many streets, traffic wasn't as bad as might be expected, suggestingmany people stayedhome.

City staff worked all night to get the streets and sidewalks as clear of snow as possible, said John Manconi, the city's director of surface operations.

"We've had all our resources out there, 600 pieces of equipment and staff," he said, estimating thecitymayspend as much as $10 million on clearing snow andcoveringtransit signsin relation to this week's events.

Not even school buses were running in Ottawa and the surrounding part of eastern Ontario onWednesday after the following school boards cancelled busing because of the storm:

• Ottawa Carleton District School Board
• Ottawa Carleton Catholic School Board
• Upper Canada District School Board
• Tri-Board Student Transportation Services jurisdiction
• North Addington Education Centre

School buses continued to run in the Outaouais, as did STO (Socit de Transport de l'Outaouais) buses.

Cities, universities add parking, shuttles

The City of Gatineau isproviding two extra parking lots for commuters:

• A 400-space lot south of the Robert-Guertin centre, accessible from Morin Street, Carillon Street and des Allumettires Boulevard.
• A 60-space lot at the site of the former Hull mini golf, accessible from Montcalm Street at Highway 50.

Carleton University and the Carleton University Students Association were providing shuttles to help students get to their exams at:

• Merivale Road and Meadowlands Drive, with a pickup every 45 minutes.
• Place d'Orleans, with a pickup every hour.
• South Keys Mall (near the O-Train), with a pickup every 30 minutes.
• Bank Street and MacLeod Street bus stop, with a pickup every 30 minutes.

The University of Ottawa was also boosting shuttle service between:

• The main University of Ottawa campus and Carleton University.
• The centre of the main University of Ottawa campusand a parking lot at 200 Lees Avenue on the edge of the campus.
• The main University of Ottawa campus and the Health Sciences Centre on Smyth Road, near the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario and the Ottawa Hospital, general campus.

Bus drivers last walked off the job in 1996 for 24 days.

OC Transpo director Alain Mercier said Tuesday that employers should help their employees deal with the strike by allowing more flexible scheduling.