Good Day all! – great news for many Maintenance redeployed recalls/ Fleet Services Fall sign up / new Bus Cleaner hires in Edmonton

We recently received word that the City of Edmonton secured the funding to have all of our maintenance redeployed staff return to their regular jobs. Communications to those effected should be going out in the next short while with all of the details. Looks to be at the end of August for the return.

There will be another Fleet maintenance sign up coming up as well. I know there was a lot of fear about this Covid sign up as there was no end date to it. There was a lot of unknowns a few months ago. Management is working on what the sign up will look like and will be presenting the drafts to the Union during our normal sign up meetings come mid – August sometime. Fall Sign up should start at the normal time it usually does for us – mid September.

The City Of Edmonton also approved funding for a ton of full time, temporary cleaner positions to maintain the new standard of cleaning. These new hires will replace our redeployed operators and maintenance people returning to their regular jobs. Keep your eyes open for the posting in the next while with more details. We anticipate to hear more news about LRT Cleaner postings in the next while as well!

Steve Bradshaw was previously pressing Edmonton City Council to approve this funding for more Cleaners so this is really great to hear! ATU Canada and the Canadian ATU locals were also pressuring the Federal government for Transit funding. The Federal government eventually came through with some money so thank you to everyone that took the time to sign that petition!

Things are looking really good for now and starting to resemble to some kind of (new) normal. A reminder to everyone to please stay vigilant and stay safe so we can ensure that we stay on this path.

Thank you to everyone for bearing though this difficult times – whether you were working on the front lines dealing with an extra stressed society, playing a major role in keeping the front lines going, redeployed in unfamiliar areas with different job tasks and shift challenges or laid off dealing with so many unknowns. You are all truly the heroes, making it work!

Have a safe and Happy long weekend all!

Jennifer Ewanchuk
ATU 569 Assistant Business Agent
VP Maintenance