Trucker tests draw pickets

Man, does this one have relevence to me. That is the very location where I am taking my AZ Driver Course. I was 4 weeks into the 5 week course when the Drive Test employees went on strike, at that time the school decided to hold back my last week of in-cab training until the strike was over. It's been 13 weeks now and they're not even close to ending it, so Serco opened up 6 Drive Test locations across the province - staffed by management - with limited services with the intent of clearing some of the backlog of students waiting to get their road test. This was no doubt in response to the protest by trucking schools a couple weeks ago that had several tractor trailer rigs converge on the provincial government's location. There are many schools about to go bankrupt because of this strike and there has been a lot of lobbying on their part to have the government step in. But the government says it is a labour matter and has made no effort to get things rolling again.

Anyway, the opening of the 6 locations was announced in advance to the union and placed on the Serco website last week, but the office in Owen Sound wasn't one of those locations. I'm not sure how the deal came about, but I'm pretty sure the strikers weren't told about Road Tests being given off-site by my school. Apparently they found out about it when a striker, posing as a student, phoned the school office and tricked Jamie into giving out that information. And that is how they ended up at the private location where the trucks are kept and started picketing there.

I'm still waiting for my road test date to be booked, at which time I'll be back in the truck for my last week before doing the test. But now I'm wondering if it will happen because of this issue coming to light. I'm not going to get into the ethics, morality and opinions on the strike action issue, but suffice it to say I'll have no problems "crossing the picket line" to get to the truck if and when the time comes.