Seven Oaks Magazine.

Jennifer Efting is an organizer with the Bus Riders Union (BRU), a grassroots activist group in Vancouver, British Columbia. Seven Oaks sat down with Efting to discuss a recent victory, and the ongoing work of her organization.

1. Translink, the regional transit board, has reinstated the 'Night Owl' buses. How did this decision come about?

Translink, on Tuesday, voted to bring back Night Owl buses, seven days a week. For the past 18 months the Bus Riders Union has been organizing a campaign called "Night Owl buses, end the curfew now!" On Tuesday the Translink board bowed under public pressure and brought back the Night Owl buses.

Well, the Bus Riders Union really saw the cuts to the Night Owl buses, in 2001, as an attack on the rights of late-night workers and other transit dependent people, who rely on late-night buses to get around.

It was pretty uncharacteristic of the Translink board. They pretty regularly vote in favour of a corporate-business agenda. So we were surprised, and it was our entire demand. Our demand was to bring back the buses that were cut in 2001. But I think that is different than being satisfied. That was our demand, but our idea is that this is just a start. We have a lot more things we want to accomplish, in terms of seeing transit as a social justice issue.

4. Your next major campaign is against fare increases. What do you say to those who argue that higher fares are necessary to pay for the service?

We say that buses are a public service, and that bus fares are really a user fee on a public service. So, when you're charging a fare at all, it limits people's access to the public service. Everybody deserves to have access to their jobs, to have access to their family and friends. We saw during the lockout in 2001 what happens to the working class and marginalized communities in our region when there are no buses. People suffer emotionally, they suffer physically, and they suffer economically, when they can't access bus service.

5. Have you been able to get support from the drivers union, the CAW, and from individual drivers, for your campaigns?

Well, the BRU is a grassroots organization, so we actually organize on the buses every week, and the drivers are always really excited to see us get on the bus, and they really welcome us on the bus. In terms of the CAW, Mable Elmore [a CAW member] spoke out at the Translink meeting. The CAW is one of twelve organizations that spoke in favour of the motion to bring back the late-night buses.

6. In what way has the experience of the Bus Riders Union in Los Angeles inspired you, and what do you see as the reasons for the success of the BRU in L.A. ?

The BRU in Vancouver is directly inspired from the BRU in Los Angeles . And I think that I can say that what we were really excited by was seeing the buses - as Eric Mann, the director of the BRU in L.A. , says - as a factory on wheels. The idea that, in this era where it's getting harder to organize labour unions, there's more barriers put in the way, we can take the tradition of trade unionism and bring it into the community. To reach unorganized working class people where they actually are, to kind of go to them and start talking about public services as a social justice issue.

7. How can the average bus rider get involved in your organization and, as a grassroots group, how do you make sure that you remain democratic?

Well, like I said, we get on the buses. We have volunteer organizers who ride the buses once a week and talk about our campaigns. But also our campaigns -it's a relationship. Our campaigns are developed through conversations with the riders, they tell us what the priorities for the Bus Riders Union should be. In terms of remaining democratic, the planning committee is directly elected by the membership every year at our annual general meeting. We're a membership based organization so that's how decisions are made. We have about 280 members right now, but we don't just represent our members. We represent all bus riders in the region.