Whitby Bus Drivers Charge Unifor Local 222 With Failure to Provide Fair Representation

UPDATES – Hearing Scheduled – May 12, 2025

Unifor Request to Throw Out Complaint Rejected by the OLRB

The complaint by 44 former PWTransit workers in Whitby (the Applicants) against Unifor Local 222 was filed on November 1, 2023. The complaint says that Local 222 violated its “duty of fair representation” because it failed to defend their jobs when Durham Region Transit ended the contract with PWTransit and started operating the Whitby routes directly. At the end of 2023 all PWTransit workers lost their jobs. Starting in January 2024 many of them were hired by DRT, but as part-time new hires, subject to the worst split shifts. Some of them were not hired at all.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) scheduled a mediation session for March 18, 2024. The mediation session was unproductive. Local 222 did not offer the Applicants anything to correct the injustices they had suffered. The next step should have been a hearing to look at the complaint and decide if it should be upheld. That was delayed because Local 222 asked the OLRB to dismiss the complaint without a hearing. They said “the applicants unreasonably delayed” in filing their complaint. Local 222 also argued that the OLRB should throw out the case because there was no “prima facie case”, meaning that no evidence was presented that would show a violation of their duty to fair representaion.

In their submission they said, “Local 222 says that while its decisions concerning the in-sourcing of the Whitby transit service and the effects on PW employees were at all times rational, non-discriminatory and in good faith, its decisions cannot be the subject of a section 74 complaint by PW employees and it ought to be dismissed.”

What does this mean?

• The “in-sourcing of the Whitby transit service” was the decision by Durham Region Transit to end the contract with PWTransit and operate those routes themselves.
• “The effects on PW employees” is that all workers at PWTransit lost their jobs at the end of December 2023.
• Then, Unifor Local 222 claims “its decisions cannot be the subject of a section 74 complaint by PW employees and it ought to be dismissed.” Section 74 of the Ontario Labour Relations Act is the section that says unions have a duty of fair representation to their members.

So, when you put it all together, Local 222 is arguing that they were representing the DRT workers, and so the Local had no duty of fair representation to the PWTransit workers, and Local 222’s decisions cannot be the subject of a complaint.

Local 222’s objections rejected – but cause lengthy delay

The Applicants submitted a detailed argument against Local 222’s attempt to have the complaint thrown out. The Applicants were successful, and Local 222’s arguments were rejected. On the subject of delay, the OLRB agreed with the Applicants that the complaint was filed within about 3 months and “the Board does not find that the delay in bringing this application should result in its dismissal.” On the argument that there was no prima facie case, the Board decision said this:

The applicants plead that the responding party failed to represent their interests and those of the PWT Bargaining Unit in connection with DRT’s decision to contracting-in the services. They claim that the responding party [meaning Local 222] only advanced the interests of the DRT Bargaining Unit resulting in an adverse impact to their employment. They also claim that the responding party failed to communicate with them and their representatives in the context of negotiations that occurred between it and DRT that led to DRT’s decision to proceed with contracting the work. The Board finds that these pleadings, assumed to be both true and provable, met the very low bar of establishing a prima facie case and should proceed to a hearing.

The Whitby transit workers have now won the right to have a hearing on their complaints, however Local 222’s attempt to have the case dismissed without a hearing has caused a lengthy delay. The OLRB decision to proceed with the complaint did not come down until January 13, 2025.

On January 14, the Board scheduled a hearing for May 12, 2025.

On February 3, Local 222 made another request to further delay proceedings when they asked the OLRB to cancel the May 12 hearing and reschedule it for another date.

The Applicants asked the Board to reject the request to cancel the May 12 hearing, which would unnecessarily delay justice for these workers. We are now waiting for an answer from the OLRB.

Archived – Complaint against Unifor Local 222 by Whitby transit workers – posted March 14, 2024

On January 18, 2024 the Ontario Labour Relations Board began proceedings into a complaint by 44 former Whitby transit employees that Jeff Gray and Local 222 failed in their legal duty to represent them in a fair and just manner. The complaint charges that the leadership of Local 222 acted in a manner that was arbitrary, discriminatory, and in bad faith.

In 2022 Local 222 agreed to allow Durham Region Transit (DRT) to contract out the jobs of 35 drivers who provided Specialized Services for passengers with disabilities. As a trade-off, DRT agreed to end the contract to PWTransit to provide transportation in Whitby and bring that work in-house. Local 222 accepted this, but failed to negotiate any protection for the jobs and seniority of the workers who were then employed by PWT in Whitby. The drivers and mechanics in Whitby were already dues-paying members of Local 222. Some of these drivers have provided transit services in Whitby for over 30 years. Instead of fighting for these Local members, Jeff Gray agreed to a memorandum that said the Whitby drivers and mechanics could only APPLY for jobs with Durham Transit, with no guarantee of being hired. Those that were hired, would start as new hires at the bottom of the seniority list, and would be part-time. Because of this agreement signed by Jeff Gray, only 30 drivers have been hired by DRT, and they are on the worst jobs, with no weekends off, and subjected to exhausting split shifts.

This case is now registered as OLRB File No. 1749-23-U. 

The failure of the Local Union leadership to fight on behalf of these workers is shocking. Even though the Whitby workers received pay cheques from PWT, they were working for Durham Region Transit for all intents and purposes. The routes they drove were determined by DRT, the buses they drove were owned by DRT, and they even had DRT logos on their uniforms. The PWT workers were also dues-paying members of Local 222, and some of them had been providing transit services in Whitby and paying dues to Unifor continuously for 10, or 20, or 30 years.

No Campaign, No Fight

Unifor Local 222 and Unifor National should have fought to protect the jobs and seniority of these workers. They should have tried to bargain on their behalf, and if they couldn’t get a good agreement, they should have launched a public campaign. That is what was done in other cases where workers were threatened with job loss due to a change in contractors, and Unifor has won campaigns like that in the past. But the Local 222 leadership did not launch a campaign for the Whitby transit workers.

In fact, the Whitby PWT workers didn’t even hear about the threat to their jobs from the union, even though it was discussed at the negotiation sessions between DRT and Unifor Local 222 (which also represents the drivers and mechanics in the rest of Durham region). They only heard about it from DRT drivers after it was reported at the DRT ratification meeting. The Local 222 leadership had been discussing this for a while, but never informed the PWT members or their elected representatives.

This is the opening section of the Labour Board complaint by the Whitby drivers (“The Applicants”):

Unifor and its Local 222 (the Union) acted to have the applicants lose their jobs, and have them replaced by members of another Unit of Local 222. In acting to achieve this goal, the Union completely disregarded the interests of the applicants, did not provide them with representation, excluded them and their Unit representatives from negotiations that affected their jobs, conducted negotiations in secret, and prevented the Applicants and their Unit representatives from having any knowledge of agreements that were being negotiated that affected the Applicants. The Applicants and their representatives were repeatedly given false information by the Union. The Applicants were given assurances by the Union that their interests would be protected, and all those assurances were broken.

Eventually, 30 of the drivers were hired by DRT, and all of them are now classified as part-time with the most undesirable, split shifts. (One maintenance worker was also hired by DRT.) Here is an example of the consequences of this agreement – one driver, who has served Whitby transit riders for 19 years, is now forced to work a shift that starts at 4:26 am for just over 4 hours. He has over 6 unpaid hours off, and then works another 2 hours and 20 minutes. That amounts to a 13-hour day for only 6.6 hours pay. He also has to work Saturdays and Sundays with no premium. [See Whitby Bus Driver’s Letter in the sidebar.]

Unifor claims they had no legal obligation to fight for the Whitby drivers’ jobs.

In their response to the workers’ complaint, Unifor filed a document that claims they had no legal obligation to fight for the PWT members. This is from Unifor’s response – “Local 222 says that while its decisions concerning the in-sourcing of the Whitby transit service and the effects on PW employees were at all times rational, non-discriminatory and in good faith, its decisions cannot be the subject of a section 74 complaint by PW employees and it ought to be dismissed.” (Emphasis added) Section 74 is the section of the Ontario Labour Relations Act that says unions have a duty of fair representation to their members. When Local 222 says that “its decisions cannot be the subject of a section 74 complaint”, they are saying that the decisions Local 222 made about what to do (or not do) on behalf of the Whitby workers cannot be challenged at the Labour Relations Board. In effect, Local 222 is saying that even though the PWT members were being displaced from jobs they had been doing for years, Unifor had no legal obligation to try to protect their jobs. They are asking the Labour Board to dismiss the workers complaints, and are not offering anything else to those workers, including to the workers who were not hired.

The workers who filed the complaint against Unifor Local 222 are now going through the process of having the Ontario Labour Relations Board review their complaint.

All of the documents relating to this case are available on this website:

1. The full text of the complaint to the OLRB by the 44 PWTransit workers.
2. The redress that the applicants are asking the OLRB to provide.
3. All of the exhibits and documents that are relevant to the complaint
4. Unifor Local 222’s response to the OLRB filed on November 28, 2023.
5. The DRT response to the OLRB filed on November 27, 2023.
6. The Applicants’ reply to Unifor Local 222’s attempt to have the complaint dismissed without a hearing.
7. The OLRB decision rejecting Unifor Local 222’s request to dismiss the complaint.
8. The OLRB order for a hearing date of May 12, 2025.
9. Unifor Local 222’s request to cancel the hearing date of May 12, 2025 and reschedule it.
10. The Applicant’s response to Unifor Local 222’s request to reschedule the hearing date.
11. Comments from PWTransit drivers about how they feel about their treatment by Unifor Local 222.
12. A 6-minute interview about this case from community radio station CIUT FM – 89.5

Tim Thompson was the Unit Chairperson for the Whitby Transit workers for over 30 years, until the end of 2023. Gord Vickers was a long-time Unit Chairperson for Oshawa Transit workers. Here are some comments from them on the way the Whitby transit workers were treated by their union:

Tim Thompson, Whitby Transit Unit Chair:

Never have I been so disrespected by the Local’s leadership. I was lied to. I was stonewalled for answers and kept in the dark, and not allowed to represent my unit. Jeff Gray under his leadership did what all other employers failed to do – take away our seniority, vacation and jobs.

Gord Vickers, former Durham Transit Unit Chair:

When I was DRT Chair the leadership of our Local always fought for all transit workers in Durham to have their jobs and seniority protected. We always took the union principle that all transit workers should be under one umbrella with their seniority dovetailed. Tim Thompson, who paid union dues for thirty plus years and served on our Local 222 Executive Board for 9 years, has been put out to dry. That is something you just don’t do. When a union acts like an employer and workers become expendable, it is something you just don’t do.  To claim before the labour board that Local 222 was under no obligation to represent Whitby transit workers – that is something you just don’t do, because it is a violation of every union principle.