Retirement Banquet 2025

Our Retirement Banquet takes place October 4th, 2025 at the Grey Eagle Resort and Casino, starting at 5:30 PM.

We have a limited number of tickets available for Members to purchase. Member tickets are $30 per Member and Non-Member tickets are $75 per person.

As of the printing of this newsletter invitations & tickets have been sent to all retired Members. If you are retired and have not received your invite and ticket, please call us at 403-258-1258 ext. 0 so we may double check your address.

We are very much looking forward to a wonderful evening together, celebrating our retirees!

It’s an Election Year – Is Your Address Up to Date?

This is an election year for ATU Local 583 and that means mailed ballots. Is your address up to date? If you are unsure, please give us a call at 403-258-1258 ext. 0 or email Jacinda.w@atu583.com to update!

Having your address up to date is very important, but with ballots being mailed later this year – it’s even more so. Once a ballot has been mailed to the address we have on file, we cannot mail another. While you would still be able to vote in person at the Union office, it is certainly more convenient to have it sent directly to your home.

Retiree Bus Passes

As a retiree, under Article 129.02 of our Collective Agreement you are entitled to a bus pass. This should be taken care of at the time of your retirement but we know things can happen. Passes can get lost or misplaced, even wrecked in some instances.

If you do not have your retiree bus pass and would like to have it – please reach out to Jacinda.w@atu583.com or call 403-258-1258 ext. 6 and our admin will be glad to assist you. Please include your full name and employee number as these will be required to look you up.

Pancake Breakfast/Open House and Family Picnic

WOW! These events were so well attended! We had over 450 people attend the Pancake Breakfast/Open House and over 600 at the Family Picnic. It was a delight to see so many Members and their families.

By all accounts a great time was had by all, at both functions. Some highlights were the barbecued food, popsicles, bouncy houses, the games and prize draws! And of course, the time we spent together.

We want to take this opportunity to thank our volunteers. Without you, these events would be near impossible to put on. We have a list of recent volunteers on our website at www.atu583.com/news to recognize the Members who put in their own free time to make these events run smoothly for everyone!

Member Recognition

From time to time, we like to highlight Members who are out there doing good things in the community and for their fellow Members. This month we have two!

Brother Sarabjit Saini and Brother Jagdev Bual Sahib.

Brother Saini is a fixture at Saddletowne Circle on Sundays. Bringing coffee and timbits for his fellow Operators. What a generous thing to do, to uplift the spirits of your fellow Members. A coffee and a doughnut go a long way on a Sunday morning. Thank you, Sarabjit, for your continued efforts to bring a little joy to everyone!

(Brother Saini)

Brother Sahib took it upon himself to ensure VP Garage had coffee, tea, sugar and milk for two years before management started providing these items. A truly kind thing to do! We are grateful for such a selfless and thoughtful gesture. Thank you, Jagdev, for the time you spent trying to ensure your fellow Members had warm drinks while on shift!

(Brother Sahib)

Members like Sarabjit and Jagdev are exactly why we are so proud of our Membership. If you know a Member who is going above and beyond – let us know! Jacinda.w@atu583.com. We would love to feature them in a future newsletter or social media post.

Member Assaults

We want to continue to discuss this very serious issue and to keep Member safety at the forefront of our discussions.

In late July a Member was threatened with a knife and robbed of their belongings. This is exactly as disturbing as it sounds and we are thankful the Operator was not physically injured.

Disturbingly, the assailant was caught and turned out to be an 11-year-old child. This does not decrease the seriousness of this crime. Rather, it leads us back to conclusions we made long ago – Operator safety is something we need to consistently and constantly be aware of. We cannot let our guard down because even children are now somehow targeting our Members. This is a truly sad and concerning result.

We have been in touch with this particular Member and we do our very best reach out to all Members who are assaulted or otherwise terrorized. The Member in this case has advised that despite the terrible circumstances, they are doing okay. Again, this is what we are grateful for.

As many of you will have already seen, $15 million dollars has been allocated for updated and SAFER driver’s shields. This is an excellent first step and we will be keeping the Membership apprised of this project.
We will continue to push for safer working conditions and we will continue to keep Members updated on those proceedings.

Maintenance/Office Update

A report from Calgary Transit went to City Council last week concerning Battery Electric Bus Procurement. It was confirmed that a deal has been signed to purchase 120 40 foot electric buses from Nova. Two of those buses are slated to land here this year, with the remaining set to be here by the end of 2027. The full fleet is to be in service by the end of 2028. The charging, servicing and storage will be handled at Spring Gardens Garage and Anderson Garage.

ATU 583 Audit

Our 6-month audit ending December 31, 2024 has come back with no deficiencies. This report was sent off to our International in March in compliance with twice yearly audits that ATU Local 583 completes per the International Constitution and General Laws.

Because we do our audits every 6 months rather than the standard 12 months for most bodies, we are just finishing the final entries for the auditing firm to begin our June 30, 2025 report this week.

Member Updates

We would like to welcome the new Office employees per the Jurisdictional Review as new Members of ATU Local 583!

With these new Members, our membership grows by approximately 40 people.

We are glad to have these new additions to ATU 583 and hope to see them at our Regular Union Meetings. Welcome!