Will Workers Walk?
Winnipeg Wants to put GPS Tracking in Trucks; Union is Suspicious
GPS tracking devices have been ordered for all the vehicles in the forestry department in Winnipeg Canada. Meanwhile, the local union is questioning the city’s motives and threatening to walk.
Winnipeg is already using vehicle tracking devices in police cars and street and sanitation trucks. City fathers said the GPS tracking systems help them closely track workers, respond faster to calls, and as a result work more efficiently. The Local 500 Union, however, is not so sure. Some members there think the GPS tracking devices are an excuse to micromanage their department or discipline certain workers for making errors on the job.
The union spokesman said GPS tracking is unfair because it allows supervisors to single out the actions of certain union members. They want to negotiate a GPS tracking policy. If they have to, he said, the union will fight the GPS tracking system and if necessary, go on strike.
“This is a city of 650,000 people,” responded Ed Richardson, a communications representative with the city of Winnipeg. That’s a big area and our employees have a lot of responsibility. With GPS tracking we can assign the closest vehicle to a particular call at any time.”
The Urban Forestry division’s responsibilities include tree planting, trimming and disease control.
Richardson described a real-time vehicle tracking system the city is buying. A GPS tracking receiver is placed in every vehicle. The position of the vehicle is recorded at regular intervals and the information is transmitted to a central data base. All the vehicles can be monitored on a computer, moment to moment, on a map backdrop.
The city says it has the right to put whatever equipment is sees fit on public property. GPS tracking will help keep the work schedule fluid, and tasks can be added or eliminated as necessary. The vehicle tracking system will help complete payroll and expense reports and it will protect city property from unauthorized use or theft.
On the other hand, union members have said, the employer/employee relationship is one built on trust, and GPS tracking shirks trust in favor of spying. GPS systems can be abused. Bosses can use them to push workers to run a tighter schedule, leading to harassment, errors or shoddy workmanship. Vehicle tracking could lead to employee favoritism. Hiring and firing decisions could hinge on production goals.
The debate has gone well beyond the council chambers. Citizens are commenting on message boards and in writing letters. The workers are being seen either as “whiners” or “slackers.” Some people claim to have seen Winnipeg city workers doing drugs, visiting girlfriends, taking 2-hour coffee breaks and going to bars and strip clubs on work time.
“You are the employee and your time is paid for,” said one citizen. “If the boss wants to know if you are performing rather than cheating him, then that’s the boss’s prerogative.”
Another man had no sympathy for the union:
“The company I work for just installed GPS tracking in their fleet with full knowledge of all the drivers and you should see how productivity has gone up, now that these people know they have to stick to their assigned areas. Money well spent.”
Other citizens are choosing a path of conspiracy:
Workers should not submit to the plan, even if they are honest and dedicated, said one man, because GPS tracking systems always are installed with the best of intentions, innocently enough. Then, before long, government is prying into their personal lives. While trying to squeeze an extra hour of work out of one employee, the government is being run by crooked politicians wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on cronies, favors and corruption.
Source: CBC News
Tags: GPS, Tracking, trucks, unions, walk, workers
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