DriveTest strike affecting drivers, driving schools
Fourteen weeks and counting.
That’s how long 600 DriveTest workers, including Corin Visinski and Doris Price of the Renfrew office, have been on strike. That’s how long Ontarians have been unable to take their driver’s tests, and there’s no end in sight.
After workers, members of the United Steelworkers (USW), Local 9551, voted 78 per cent against accepting the company’s “final offer” Nov. 11, DriveTest announced it would be opening six offices in major centres, including Ottawa, to resume partial service, mainly for commercial drivers.
However, it’s cold comfort for Renfrew-based Ottawa Valley Driving School owner Frank Folkema, who has had to lay off one of his drivers in the face of lagging business because of the strike. “He’s had to go back to truck-driving until this thing clears up,” he said Friday.
“It’s definitely cutting into our livelihood,” he added. “It’s starting to bite now.”
He said his first two driving courses this fall weren’t affected greatly, but with the number of students with G-1 licences drying up, registrations for his next course are down about 50 per cent.
