Transit union pleads for full shields after near ‘hijacking situation’

The union representing Winnipeg Transit drivers says the need for full safety shields is critical after an operator was threatened with a hatchet early Thursday.

James Van Gerwen, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505, told the Free Press about the latest incident of violence on a city bus.

The bus was waiting at the St. Vital terminal at about 1 a.m. when a passenger repeatedly told the operator to drive. When the driver left the terminal, the passenger took a hatchet out from a bag, reached around the safety shield and threatened her.

A police car happened to be driving next to the bus and the driver flagged it down, Van Gerwen said. Winnipeg Transit spokesperson Brandon Logan wouldn’t discuss details of the incident, but confirmed a report was made to Transit’s control centre Thursday morning.

“This was almost like a hijacking situation,” Van Gerwen said. “This driver is one year into her career, this will stay with her forever.”

While she wasn’t hurt, the driver is now on leave from her duties, making her one of more than 60 operators currently on stress leave, the union said.

Sixty-four drivers are off work due to psychological injury, totalling more than 30,000 days and 225,000 hours of lost driver time, the union said.

The incident is the third altercation involving Winnipeg Transit drivers over the last few days. Police announced Wednesday two people were facing charges for assaulting Transit employees in separate incidents within a 10-hour span Tuesday.

A 51-year-old man is accused of randomly throwing a beer can at a driver while exiting a bus at Dunkirk Avenue and Kingston Row at about 6 a.m.

The man bit the driver, who was trying to restrain him, police said. He was charged with assault and held in custody.

Later that day, a 31-year-old woman who refused to pay bus fare at Main Street and Pioneer Avenue punched a supervisor in the face, police said Wednesday.

The supervisor, who was enforcing fares outside a stopped bus, held the woman until police arrived. The suspect faces a charge of assaulting a peace officer.

Two weeks ago, a passenger stabbed a Transit driver in the leg with a syringe while the operator was stopped downtown. A female passenger reached around the shield and stabbed the driver twice before getting off the bus.

Due to increasing violence against drivers, Winnipeg Transit said in November it is exploring replacing partial driver shields, installed on the bus fleet in 2019, with floor-to-ceiling compartments.

Rick Young, Transit’s manager of operations, gave a ballpark estimate of $15 million to install the compartments at the time.

The City of Winnipeg set aside about $2.7 million in its 2024 capital budget to test the efficacy of such shields, but that pilot project has not moved ahead.

The union has demanded full shields be installed on buses.

“The amount of Workers Compensation Board claims that we must be paying out would pay off the entire shields within two years. So every day they’re holding off on putting these shields in, it’s costing Winnipeggers money,” Van Gerwen said.

Data from the city show there have been 42 recorded assaults on bus drivers in uniform, whether on or off the bus, this year. Logan said those figures represent assaults as defined by the Criminal Code.

In 2025, there were 104 recorded assaults on bus drivers.

Van Gerwen said city public service officials are revising cost estimates for the pilot to be included in Winnipeg Transit’s capital budget submission next year, but that timeline needs to be sped up.

“I need them to push Transit to actually do something,” he said.

Coun. Evan Duncan has repeatedly called for increased safety on Transit buses and says the issue goes beyond installing shields.

“We need to tackle the the issue on our streets, and that is holding people, whether it be in custody or some type of facility, in a non-voluntary manner, because we cannot have individuals who are victimizing people out on the streets,” Duncan said. “I know there was a time when individuals were involuntarily held. Now, if that’s at a hospital that can provide them with the psychiatric care that they need, great. If that’s at an institution, great. If they are committing crimes, they need to be in our corrections system.”

Duncan said he would support a motion to install shields on routes identified as “high risk.” He expects a discussion about the shields to be part of budget talks following October’s municipal election.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca