BIU Calls ‘Urgent Meeting’ For Bus Drivers
[Updated] The Bermuda Industrial Union has called an ‘urgent meeting’ for bus operators and allied workers for this coming Monday [Aug.15] at the BIU headquarters at 10:30am.
The Union is presently involved in a dispute with the Transport Ministry over the suspension of a bus driver. Yesterday [Aug.11] BIU President Chris Furbert said the BIU gave the Transport Ministry 24 hours to reinstate a bus driver who was suspended following an accident seven weeks ago.
Mr Furbert said their drug policy calls for urine drug testing, not hair follicle drugs testing which the driver was asked to take, and said although the accident involved two bus drivers, and only one was asked for a drug test.
The Ministry of Transport then released a statement saying the suspended bus driver will be reinstated after she takes a drug test. The Ministry said an investigation concluded the bus driver in question was “solely to blame” for the accident as she failed to secure the handbrake, and that the bus driver has refused five opportunities since the accident in June to take a drug test.
Update: The meeting time has been changed from 7pm to 10:30am.
Dumber than dog&%$t – not only does the notice demonstrate a lack of comprehension of our common language, they have to hold the meeting at a time guaranteed to be the most disruptive to the community and our tourists.
Dumber than a sack of hammers!
Every bus driver should be thanking God they have a job.
Not quite yet, they will wait for the schools to go back in, then they will strike.
how about a waiver for the drug test in return for an audit?
Here we go again *eyes rolling*
“THERE WILL BE A URGENT MEETING”.
I’d suggest the first item of business should be the appropriate utilisation of ‘a’ vs. ‘an’ in advance of a consonant.
Then they can decide on whether or not they’re going to have an strike
PMSL
)
A vs an in advance of a verb. lol. loud strong and wrong
Stay in school kid… smh
please tell me i didn’t just read that?
A E I O U sometimes Y
These are vowels.
Thanks for holding the meeting during the hours when people need the buses most.
In the real world people attend these meeting after work.
Typical ignorant nonsense put on by spoiled brats who continuously bite the hand that feeds them.
Eff you BIU.
you hit the nail right on the head! damn fools
Not so urgent if it can wait well over 48 hours.
lol well said.. i was wondering why its not a friday night or weekend thing if its THAT important.
‘Cause they’re all at their second jobs…
If the meeting was is so urgent why didn’t they have the meeting on Friday night or over the weekend? Can’t cut into that overtime can ya?
Let them go on strike and bring in replacement workers from other countries. Replace the dock workers or whoever else wants to go on strike for something so stupid as this. The union has it’s function, but it shouldn’t be protecting someone like this driver.
Sick and tired of being held ransom. The lady had 5 chances so far, and they are still saying she can be tested. Do we really want people like that driving our public transport. Total disrespect for her employers and Bermudians.
Bus riders should also not vote for the PLP. The PLP need to be made redundant. They have been doing a bad job.
Will you marry me? If you are a woman that is.
This arrogant fool is driving the final nail in the coffin, which is Bermuda. But maybe this is what we need. We may have to hit rock bottom before this ignorant mindset is changed. By then, they wont have any membership and people will only be hired if they are competent and qualified.
The current climate we are in, does not call for business as usual, but this idiot can’t see that, he has his head stuck so far in a dark hole, he cannot see the light. Wake up BIU you, are killing us.
Hey folks dont be to alarmed as this is his way of making the membership who pays his enormous salary that he has thier best interest at heart. If that were so the so called emergency meeting would have been had today seeing that the 24 hour is long past. The reality of it all is that he has already been behind closed doors with his buddies and the deal is done. Monday he,ll stand in front of them only to talkl alot of sh………t then give them every reason why they should go back to work instead of following through with his threat. Im sharing this with you from the inside, never fails same old nonsense time after time.What the entire membership should call a meeting about is his inability to lead or guidw them in any direction. listening to him trying to justify his sh……t on the news today the joker could barely spit out a sentence without appearing to lost and clueless of what he was speaking of. It would really be a treat to see Bro Ottiwel Simmons return and try to steer to vessel before it runs aground. So lets just wait until Monday and listen for more sh……..t from the joker and also keep your eyes open for the divisional president grinning like a real jack rabbit another one who works behind the scenes to sell out the PTB bus drivers and allied workers.
i hear the insurance company crashed ,the banks are going broke ,the stock markets crashed ,police spent all their money on a dirty war so they crashed ,the country owes a billion dollars so u may as well say they crashed ,every minister has gone over budget so they crashed too NO DRUG TEST FOR THEM .How many people enjoy wine with there dinner .keep sending the poor man to prison and now u can legally steal their money and then sit back and wonder when what happens in London happens here Buisness as per normal.
This woman already caused an accident. Are we supposed to wait until she has a memory lapse while stoned and kills a couple of dozen people? Typical ignorant arrogant stupidity. She should be fired and lose her licence.
@ sam montain: There was no threat of jail, only of treatment – I guess for someone who wants to continue to use substances, treatment would be seen as a threat!
For everybody else who questions why a hair follicle test – cocaine and heroin only can be detected through urine testing for a short period of time,a matter of days, but it can be detected in hair follicle testing for quite a long period. Marijuana can be detected for up to 40 days in urine.
What a shame maybe an idea is to focus on the situation in somalia and be grateful!
Notable that the Minister of Transport is saying nothing. No doubt the Premier has taken over and will sort this out and allow the BIU to give some face saving announcement.
If Cox is doing Listers job again,the question is why is he still a Minister?
Once again the BIU has proved itself to be a joke… and no doubt Minister Lister is being set up to be the fall guy again… Remember folks… He ran against the premier in the leadership election.
The public (including visitors) need to be assured that our buses are operated in a drug free manner. When an accident occurs and a passenger has to go to hospital, a drug test is a reasonable request. The Government backing down on this is not an option. But I won’t be surprised if they do.
Lilly livered!
I heard the best talk show today (Linda on V,S,B,) she had so many calls …and thank God the truth came out what the hell is going down at the department of transport ?????
Minister Wilson wasted no time jumping into the docks affair to see what she can do there. Where is Minister Lister?
What do you want Lister to do? The bus drivers will strike until the driver is reinstated with minimum terms. There is nothing he can do. Ransom is a bitch, You pay or you die.
Terry is is still on his honeymoon …thank God we have minister wilson who has the public interest at heart…she would make a fantastic leader of the P,L.P.
Paula Cox in my opinion has no leadership qualities….she has put us in the sorry state that we are in now !!!!Minister Lister needs to make a statement..but he has no balls……
so basically if an athlete refuses to take or misses a drugs test they get banned for a year. if a government employee refuses to take a drug test a union supports them and (most likely) goes on strike. the BIU are a disgrace!!! the government need to show some authority for once and sort this mess out!
PLP + UNION = VOTES.
Cant have the meeting during the weekend or after “work” hours the BIU knows that none of the members would attend! I bet if we took a survey…there would be fewer people calling in sick this Monday then any other Monday in the last year. What person would call themselves a PROUD member of the BIU. I am ashamed to think I was a part of that membership 22 years ago.
Let them strike for this foolishness!! Its about time some or most of these bus operators were replaced. They have failed to change their union leadership so let them suffer unemployed. Enough is enough is ENOUGH!!!!
Minister Lister seems to be like the freshman during his first lunch at college, where you only see his legs coming out of a trash can. In other words he has proven he is totally useless!! He needs to grow a set and stand up to the bullies!! Or else situations like this and what has happened in the past will just continue and continue!!
Oh, someone please volunteer to produce proper notices for this union. Wow, no wonder they are headed where they are headed if the leadership/management can’t even put together a proper meeting notice poster.
Let them strike and fire those who participate!! Same goes for the greedy dock workers, tired of them too!!
That’s what happens when the BIU has Senators. IT’S ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL.
Where is the leadership?
Let the b#stards go on strike. Lets see how long the bus drivers can go without pay in these desperate economic times.
Hey – we have a regiment. Use them. Pull a Regan – fire the lot if they strike and replace temporarily with the regiment, volunteer police etc until replacements can be hired. What a joke this poor Island is becoming, and we the voters are 100% to blame.
None of this matters. MP Listless will give in yet again – proving to everyone that he has no wedding tackle. No guts, no credibility whatsoever.
This will enable and empower the BIU even more until they come up with another more ridiculous and outrageous case.
Somewhere, sometime in the future someone will perhaps have some balls and do a Reagan on them Fire everyone.
If a sports person refuses to take a test they cannot represent Bermuda and are unable to play for their national team for a year. That is a sport here is a driver who has peoples lives in their hand. I think Furbert you have it all twisted. I am a BIU man but right is right too many unions finding some loop hole to protect dumb crap. Lister dont bend call his bluff I bet the workers will go work sooner then later as they are not going to get paid. Get Tuff
BIU will get there way they always do. We should just let the BIU run the country as they effectivly already do.