LETHBRIDGE, ALTA. –
City of Lethbridge Transit has experienced significant route cancellations over the last few days.
One of the factors leading to the delays is labour action taken by the local transit union.
Lethbridge Transit employs 65 bus drivers. When maintaining that level of staffing, less than one percent of routes are cancelled under normal circumstances. However, a recent wave of illness has had a major impact on staffing.
“We haven’t lost drivers. We have 65 drivers right now on fixed routes. Most of them are all full-time, some part-time. And it’s really a matter of some of them are sick right now. So, it’s due to short-, medium- and long-term absences,” said Darwin Juell, City of Lethbridge transportation manager.
In these situations, other drivers would usually pick up voluntary overtime shifts to help cover routes.
But most transit workers have stopped picking up these shifts leading to further delays.
“We don’t …