Union calls for return of Greyhound dispatch centre
The Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union, local 378 (COPE 378) is calling on Greyhound to re-open its Kamloops dispatch centre after dozens of travellers were stranded at the Kamloops Greyhound terminal on Sunday, Jan. 13, for several hours without receiving an explanation of the problem or expected wait time for another bus.
“Greyhound closed the Kamloops dispatch last October and laid off 12 workers,” said COPE vice-president Heather Lee.
“These are the people who were responsible, as part of their job, for going to talk to passengers and trying to resolve these kinds of issues,” Lee said.
“They may not have been able to fix the buses, but they at least would have been able to help passengers know what to expect.”
Lee also pointed to a similar incident in December, when dozens of passengers were stranded in Kamloops overnight just before Christmas Eve and were unable to receive an explanation or expected wait time.
“Each of these incidents happened on a Sunday and that’s not a coincidence,” Lee said.
“The fact is, with the layoffs, they’ve no one working on Sundays to do this job, not even managers.
“That’s created an unacceptable situation for passengers.”
“Greyhound needs to reinstate these workers and re-open the dispatch so there are people there to do that one-on-one work and make sure passengers get the service they need,” Lee said.
“Otherwise, this type of incident is going to continue.”
Greyhound decided in the fall to close the dispatch centre on Laval Crescent and move the operation to Burlington, Ont.
The Greyhound passenger terminal and parcel component continue to operate in Kamloops.
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