Transit strike talks continue with looming midnight deadline
Posted November 26, 2019 2:34 pm.
Last Updated November 26, 2019 10:05 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Last minute contract talks continue as transit workers across Metro Vancouver prepare to walk out for three days, starting early Wednesday morning. And with a full shutdown of bus service looming, both sides are still far apart on key issues, including working conditions and wages.
National Unifor President Jerry Dias has been at the bargaining table in a Vancouver hotel.
“[The] whole objective for me being here and our complete leadership team being here is we want a settlement,” he said on Tuesday afternoon. “There’s no other group of workers in any other sector that don’t have proper bathroom breaks, that will make $2.85 an hour less than a person doing the same job as them in Toronto. That just doesn’t make any sense.”
He says Coast Mountain Bus Company negotiators are falsely claiming workers now have guaranteed breaks.
“The time that they’re using to check the bus to see if people have left any items on the bus — that, somehow, that’s considered a break time. Ridership has gone up 18 per cent in the last two years, so people have less opportunities for breaks and, respectfully, if I’m driving a bus all day long, I want well-rested drivers that have had proper breaks.”
Earlier in the day, Dias met briefly with TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond, who is refusing to bargain in public.
“All I have to say is I appreciated meeting Mr. Dias. We had a good initial conversation,” Desmond said after the meeting.
It’s not clear if the system-wide shutdown of bus and SeaBus service will go ahead, even if progress is made before the midnight deadline.
