Transit workers will go on strike Friday for the first time since 2001.
The union announced Thursday afternoon that it had called off talks with Coast Mountain Bus Company, and that bus drivers, Seabus operators and maintenance workers will go on strike at 8 a.m. Friday.
The strike action will include a ban on drivers wearing uniforms and on maintenance workers doing overtime.
Coast Mountain said it’s putting final preparations in place for Friday’s strike, adding that transit service will be impacted and there will be service cancellations.
“While effects will vary across the region, we will do our best to communicate all of those service disruptions through our many communications channels,” said Coast Mountain’s president, Michael McDaniel during a press conference Thursday.
SkyTrain, Canada Line, West Coast Express, HandyDART and Vancouver Blue Bus will not be affected by the strike, according to TransLink.
Unifor locals 111 and 2200 — which represent over 5,000 transit workers — called off talks with the employer after claiming the company failed to make any significant offers over the last 48 hours.
“We have not had a serious offer from the company since we served strike notice,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor national president.
“In other words, the company feels very comfortable with system-wide job action.”
Unifor said there had been no progress on working conditions, benefits or wages — the key talking points in the negotiations — contrary to an earlier statement by McDaniel.
In Thursday's press conference, McDaniel said that, for the past 29 days, Coast Mountain has been negotiating in good faith with the union.
“We’ve made many reasonable offers. Under our current offer, maintenance trades would see wage increases of over 12 per cent over four years,” said McDaniel. “Transit operators would see wage increases of nearly 10 per cent over four years.”
McDaniel added that the current offer also includes an enhanced benefit package and addresses working conditions and recovery time.
“I don’t know what contract talks Mr. McDaniel is following, but the employer has made virtually no movement this week on the issues that have got us to a 99 per cent strike mandate,” said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor western regional director.
“Transit workers are very disheartened and Metro Vancouver’s passengers should be disappointed in (Coast Mountain’s) unwillingness to find a solution.”
Without progress on breaks for operators, or consideration of parity with similar workers across Canada and within TransLink’s system, union members will escalate job action in the coming weeks, according to Unifor.
