I'm not used to typing that, as I have been focused on Regina and area for so long now, that I'm both surprised and honoured to have been entrusted by so many great Saskatchewan residents to be a voice for their honest concerns, now province-wide.
What the local media won't talk about, for one reason or another, or will spin in one way to cater to their governing overlords, I promise that you can come to my page for the no-nonsense, unequivocal true story. Whether it be good or bad for the governing party, elected officials or anyone in between. I have garnered much respect with the position I have taken, and (and I know this sounds insane and overly boastful) the fear of many elected politicians at different levels of government.
With that said, I was approached by an anonymous source yesterday with a personal story that I thought deserved sharing widely. That person granted me authority to use their first name, but I'm not even going to do that, because I don't want there to be any opportunity of retribution of this family, as frankly, they've had to endure enough as it is. With that said, I present to you, a story from the family of a current STC employee:
Believe me. I feel a lot of the pain of STC shutting down.
My partner of 17 years, and the father of my children, has been working there for 11 years now. There's so much more that's going on internally (at STC), than just trying to save the business. They still have a 7 month contract with Greyhound, which they will continue to fulfill, even after May 31st(, the date the Saskatchewan Party chose to shutter STC). Higher up employees, including my partner, will be asked if they would like to stay or leave.
They are then faced with one of two options:
Option A: They choose to leave. Then, we are faced with the very real comment of “Well, we offered you a job beyond the 31st, and your refusing, so we don't have to pay your severance. Oh, and we’ll make sure that Service Canada is aware of that as well, so that you will have difficulties getting EI, if at all.
Option B: Stay with STC (in the interim), and take a pay cut. Of course, this option allows you to receive your severance, but not until after the end of the extension. Therefore, for the next 7 months, he can't look for a new full time job, and he can't go back to school.
It's utter shit what's going on...oh and there are only 2 busses that come in to our location, at 6am and 10am. We still don't know 100% of what's going on with the Greyhound contract, but it will require a few employees to stay behind to work. Oh and not to mention that they are also fighting for an additional 6 weeks severance due to labour laws.
I ASKED THIS PERSON IF THEY APPROACHED LOCAL MEDIA ABOUT THIS STORY, AND THIS WAS THEIR RESPONSE:
I did and CJME botched my stories. It was very embarrassing, and they refused to delete it. He's not allowed to talk about anyone outside of STC. His name can't be mentioned or he could be terminated. I've cleared already that family are allowed to speak out, but not sure what I'm allowed and not allowed to say.
He is a big part of our main income. I work but it's not full time. My job hours are hit and miss. He was already talking about going back to school, but can't set anything up yet. Everyone was left in the dark. I keep trying to correct stories that people post, but nothing seems to be done about it. Like the day before the budget came out: They shut down the bus service to allow for management to meet with staff and let them know. This was never done. They got some papers 2 days later, which included points that by that time we already knew. I could give you copies of those. It was very unprofessional. Management hid for 2 days, and then handed out some papers with no answers.
There are also a lot of non-supporters that think shutting down STC will somehow save $85 Million per year – which is simply untrue. And what many people also don't understand is that bus going to Saskatoon with “only 5-6 people on it”, that its trailers are packed full of freight, and the bus underneath is also packed full. While ridership may be down, the freight most certainly is not. The story isn’t being told truthfully, and I think that's what's really upsetting the people that work there. Because they know more than any of us do.
It's just a really shitty deal for the Regina employees, due to the Greyhound contract, because they know they will be out of a job and can't start looking and they don't know who's staying or who's going. Because of that, they don’t know how many hours they'll work if they choose to stay, or even how much they'll get paid. So the future right now is very grim. He's upset I can tell, but being a man, he doesn't like to talk about his feelings LOL. So I can't really talk much about it with him. I talk to a few other employees that I'm close friends with, so I can try and help him manage.
Ya I told you pretty much what I told CJME. They said “my husband” – even though we are not married, and that is why I use the term “partner”. They reported that he was the sole income provider, which I also didn't say. You just can't trust anyone anymore; they even put in his wrong age. But I gave up and let it be. I just gave them a statement the next day of "how we felt" and I mean what can you say, we're losing a big chunk of income. I know we will be ok. I'm just mostly worried about our vehicle payments, which we have 3 years left out of 7, so we are doing pretty damn good, I guess.
I also said to them about the older employees that are in their fifties, who can't quite retire yet, and asked what are they supposed to do? I would say that they make up about half the total employees there. Most of them have been working there for 25+ years, and that's all they know. They are just not going to be able to find another job that pays them as well. And learning something new at that age isn't easy for some.
I trust you I have been following you for some time. I believe you respect people's privacy when it's asked. And do nothing but the truth so that's good by me!
