Letter to Randy Graham of atu279 re: Ottawa Bus Strike

This is a letter to Randy Graham...one of many vice presidents at the union....who is becoming just as bad as Andre Cornellier. He was brought in to supplant Andre as he is a twit and he is falling to Andres style of blame and callousness...These guys may be loved by their members as sincere and honest and caring...which they may be.....but when you are playing with the lives of 850,000+ people you are going to have to expect our rage.....twits. Sent this to the normal newspapers and others.

Randy,

You are grabbing at straws and it shows to people who have a head on their shoulders...as most people in Ottawa do. We are a government city...eh ? Kindly advise how Clive Doucet breaking ranks (and playing politics) from a team that is supposed to be cohesive and working together, and voted in by the people of Ottawa and seemingly working on their behalf, is any different from you cutting strike wages and berating a member who does not agree with your point of view ? Shame on you and all unions my friend. You are grabbing at straws and it shows.
"Randy Graham, international vice-president of the Amalgamated Transit Union that represents the workers, said Wednesday that he finds it unacceptable that a publicly elected official isn't allowed to voice his opinion of the situation"
This publicly elected official is just that. Elected by the public to represent us...the tax paying citizens who are being seriously affected by your unions 'irresponsible' actions. Just as you are representing your members. Would you dare go against the membership and say " This whole thing is not right...Andre is a twit and making us look bad and should not be representative of our team" Ummmmm no.
"The way they've treated councilor Doucet I think is appalling," he said. "They should be ashamed of themselves."
Shame on you and your members for the way they treat non-co-operative OC Drivers. You can deny this all you want but you know it happens. And so do we. You should be ashamed for holding 850,000+ (eight hundred and fifty thousand +) people for ransom. There are other ways to fight your fight whilst your members are back at work driving. You should be ashamed of yourselves for threatening pickets at educational facilities. Shame. You should be ashamed of yourselves for threatening to fight the cities attempts to assist our disabled residents. Shame. You should be ashamed for your public display of callousness and disregard towards the citizens who pay your members. Shame.
"He obviously doesn't get it, he doesn't want to understand it, he wants this to continue and we feel sorry for the citizens of this great city. They have been let down again by this council and this mayor and Mr. Mercier."
Do you honestly think rhetoric like this is productive ? Maybe to your members. Not the general population. We have not been let down by the City....we have been let down by your organization. I understand that it was not about money. Now seemingly the City is going to bend on scheduling but take away the bonus and Andre stormed out....We are tired of hearing you blame this on the City. atu279 are much more at fault than the City. You don't want to break and neither does the City. You both are stubborn and you see this as do we all. Unfortunately there are 10's of thousands more people behind the City, with absolutely no more power than their voice and emails. Thus we are being held hostage as you have the power by denying our public transit and gridlocking the City. Shame on you.
You will obviously get a scheduling system that is satisfactory to you. The public cannot take this much longer and the City realizes this, so they will have to cave. You will celebrate. I strongly suggest that you do not celebrate publicly. The last thing your image needs right now is a photo of union members toasting with champagne at their 'victory' This will cause unreal outrage and you would only be damaging yourselves further. Rather than a win/lose mentality why don't you go for fair/fair.
Stop blaming the public's misery on the City of Ottawa. This is your blame to shoulder. You cannot pull the wool over our eyes.