Year: 2014
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Lisa Andrews is a Transit Training Instructor with Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) and a member of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 569. She is the daughter of Kathleen Andrews, the first woman ETS transit operator. After completing studies in audio visual technology at Grant MacEwan Community College, Lisa worked for Colorfast, Shaw Cable, and the Cayman Islands Television Network. After a hurricane devastated the islands, she returned to Edmonton. Kathleen was proud when Lisa became a transit operator in 2005. Lisa worked as a transit operator and relief training instructor for 17 years before her transit training instructor position became permanent in 2022.
She outlines her mother’s achievements and the discrimination Kathleen faced in the workplace. She describes improvements for women working for ETS and some continuing challenges. Lisa also describes the significant changes in equipment and the violence faced by transit operators.
Lisa Andrews was instrumental in achieving the naming of the Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage in northeast Edmonton. It began operating in February 2020. She wrote the profile of her mother for the City of Edmonton’s webpage when three Ambleside neighbourhood streets were named in honour of her mother.
Keywords: Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 569; Bus driver; Edmonton Transit Service; Health and safety; Transit operator; Transit training instructor; Workplace discrimination based on gender; Workplace violence.
Transcript: Download PDF
See also: Occupational Health and Safety in Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta
See the profile of Kathleen Andrews here.