Union applauds city’s first step to full safety shields for Transit drivers

The union for Winnipeg Transit workers is thrilled the city has taken a step toward installing full enclosures to protect drivers from being attacked.

“This will give closure to what the union has been fighting for for over two years, just to get these enclosures to be put in,” said James Van Gerwen, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union 1505. “When I read this, I was ecstatic.”

He had just spoken at a public works committee meeting in which councillors passed a motion that calls for the city to spend $2.75 million on full-shield dividers.

Currently, buses are equipped with partial shields that do not fully protect operators. For example, on Aug. 20, a passenger armed with a hatchet was able to reach around the half-shield and threaten the driver after she became agitated with the slow rate of speed at which the bus was travelling, the union said at the time.

The driver alerted police officers who were in a cruiser in the next lane and they arrested the suspect.

At the time, the union said 64 drivers were off work owing to psychological injury, totalling more than 30,000 days and 225,000 hours of lost driver time.

On Aug. 5, a driver was stabbed with a syringe by a passenger who didn’t want to pay the fare. The incident took place after 1 a.m. near Isabel Street and William Avenue.

Van Gerwen said there are instances in which unruly passengers try to grab the steering wheel as the bus is being driven.

The public works committee asked the city’s administration to report back about an implementation plan for full shields within 90 days.

The money was originally slated for partial shields, but if the full council approves the motion, it will instead fund a pilot project involving full shields on nine buses and start the work needed to install the shields in the entire fleet.

“This is the biggest movement I’ve seen in two years,” Van Gerwen said.

He said 90 days is far too long to come up with an implementation plan.

He said union has logged an average of 174 security incidents on buses annually from 2020 and 2025. So far this year, 166 incidents were recorded by the end of August.

“This isn’t a want, it’s a need,” he said. “This is a need to protect (drivers) before something serious happens.”

The total cost of implementing the full-shield enclosures for the entire fleet has been pegged at roughly $15 million.

Richard Young, manager of operations with Winnipeg Transit, told committee members the city administration has received the green light from the province to reallocate the transit funding.

“It makes me feel absolutely wonderful that our drivers will be protected,” Young said. “And that’s throughout the whole organization, from the top down.”

Young said while the ATU 1505 might say 90 days is too long, the time is needed to determine the ideal purchasing option, see what will work best in terms of procurement models and determine requirements for potential bidders.

“We need that time to get the specifications right,” Young told the committee.

Three designs have been presented to the city. Young said it’s possible more designs will be reviewed as procurement efforts continue.

Public works chairperson Janice Lukes (Waverley West) said the 90-day timeline is important to ensure the city has selected the best option: “I know that takes time.”

Mayor Scott Gillingham said he fully supports the measure and had “worked behind the scenes” to get it in place.

Gillingham said while he doesn’t know when the new shields will be fully implemented, he said he wants to see them “implemented as quickly as possible.”

— with file from Chris Kitching

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca