CUPE 1983, whose membership includes bus drivers, paratransit drivers and fare collectors employed by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), launched a visibility campaign last month targeting the general public and public transit users in Montréal.
As part of the campaign, 460 posters and panels featuring real STM employees will remain up for another week on buses, on corridor walls at selected metro stations and at a number of bus shelters.
Titled “Salut! On se ressemble, on est du même monde ” (“Hi! We’re people just like you”), the campaign highlights both the human side and the great diversity of these STM employees who interact with the public on a daily basis.
Conceived with the goal of helping to build trust and a personal connection between users and the workers who provide transportation services to them around the clock, the campaign has been a big success to date.
“We decided to reach out directly to users to let them know that we’re ordinary people just like them and are here to serve them,” stated CUPE1983 president Renato Carlone. “We’re hoping that this campaign will help users to look at our bus drivers in a new light.”
The campaign was also launched today on Facebook, where it will continue for 15 weeks.
Each week, one of 15 STM employees will be featured on the social media platform along with a personal testimonial about why their work is important to them. Their reasons include striving to keeping users safe, working in a sector that plays an important role in protecting the environment and promoting future economic development, getting fulfilment from working closely with the public and being on the receiving end of hundreds of smiles every day.