It was quite a coincidence. During the same long weekend that the Queen of Coquitlam was pulled out of service, resulting in the cancellation of some 25 sailings between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale, the ferry workers union launched a billboard and social media campaign calling attention to the abuse from angry passengers suffered by their members. If the timing of the campaign short-circuited some rage at the terminal, it was a good thing.
“No one should fear going to work,” says the BC Ferry and Marine Workers Union website www.stopferryworkerabuse.ca. “BC Ferries workers face abuse every day, just for doing their job.” The union claims 82 per cent of workers it surveyed have been subjected to verbal or physical abuse from passengers and over half say it affects their mental health. The campaign demands BC Ferries enforce a zero-tolerance policy on abuse. BC Ferries says such a policy is already in place and the company has put up signs at terminals warning passengers to be respectful to its employees or they could be denied service.
A couple of TV networks ran with the story, generating a flood of online comments that were all over the map. Virtually everyone agrees that ferry workers should not have to tolerate abuse on the job and there is widespread support for their cause. However, some questioned how prevalent and severe the abuse really is. Some lamented it’s simply a fact of life for all service industry workers in these vulgar, entitled, easily-triggered times. And of course some comments laid the blame on BC Ferries management, saying the serious, unaddressed shortcomings of the ferry system are causing people to take out their legitimate frustrations on front-line staff. As if that excuses anything.
The Sunshine Coast is a ferry community and the heartfelt expressions of praise and admiration for ferry workers by grateful passengers have filled many column inches in this newspaper. At the same time, firm and sometimes furious calls to improve the system have been directed at BC Ferries brass and the provincial government. This is how it should be and all reasonable people know it.
We solidly back the call for zero tolerance on abuse. Our only issue with the union campaign is that its adversarial rhetoric fails to acknowledge the vast majority of passengers do conduct themselves in a civil manner even when conditions are often far from ideal. These are the ferry workers’ natural allies, so let’s not go overboard demonizing passengers because a few unruly hotheads don’t know when to stop.
