Union representing bus drivers weighs in on Metro Vancouver transit strike

The union representing bus drivers and other transit workers who did not participate in the strike in Metro Vancouver isn’t mincing words, saying its members and the public are being “used as cannon fodder for yet another TransLink dispute.”

Unifor Local 111, which represents more than 4,000 transit operators, and Local 2200, which represents 1,100 workers in the trades, support, and SeaBus operations, took aim at Coast Mountain Bus Company and TransLink during an update on Tuesday.

Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle said the dispute is on the employer.

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“This is Coast Mountain Bus Company’s strike,” he told reporters, claiming CMBC “decided to shut down the system in advance of the CUPE strike deadline” in what was described as a “callous calculation.”

On Monday, 180 transit supervisors, represented by CUPE 4500, walked off the job at 3 a.m. as part of a 48-hour strike.

This came after the union and Coast Mountain Bus Company spent the weekend negotiating with the help of a mediator. However, wages and other issues remain unresolved.

Despite how challenging the strike has been on Unifor’s members, McGarrigle says they “support the right of every group to reach a fair collective agreement.”

“We know from our own experience that what the company puts out is not exactly what’s happening at the table. But no question, this is difficult for our members. These are supervisors of our members whose normal job is to supervise our members and potentially in ways that can lead to discipline,” he explained.

“So, this isn’t easy on our members, it’s not easy on supervisors who are on strike, but again, instead of thinking that [CMBC] can somehow force 4,000 members off the job, Coast Mountain Bus Company should be including the cost of the wages of the workers impacted by this in their calculations and their cost decision not to reach a fair agreement with CUPE.”

McGarrigle says Unifor’s members “are very concerned” with the situation, adding they “know they have an obligation to the public and want to be out there serving [them].”

However, with transit workers back to work Wednesday, he says they’re also concerned about how the public may react to Unifor’s members who, again, were not on strike.

“At the end of the day, we want all the workers under the system to reach a fair agreement. But, yes, our members are quite concerned that the public will take out their frustration on our members who are not on strike and are just simply trying to go to work and respect free and fair collective bargaining,” McGarrigle said.

In an update Monday, CUPE 4500 spokesperson Liam O’Neill said there remained a “long-standing wage discrepancy.” He claimed his members “do the same work as other supervisors in TransLink, and yet, they’re paid less.”

However, TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn refuted that claim, saying in an update Monday that CMBC supervisors and SkyTrain supervisors are “two very different positions.”

On Tuesday, CMBC also provided CityNews with a description of both jobs. It says CMBC transit supervisors require less experience than SkyTrain field supervisors, and also require a lower level of education.

The job descriptions provided by the company also outline various differences in responsibilities, one of which was outlined by Quinn a day prior.

“SkyTrain supervisors, essentially, have a responsibility to hire, fire, and manage employees. Transit supervisors do not hire, fire, or manage any employees. They’re responsible to be out on the system to manage incidents as they happen and to respond accordingly,” he said.

McGarrigle wouldn’t comment directly on whether he thought the wages CUPE 4500 supervisors were asking for was fair. Instead, he again urged the sides to get back to the bargaining table to get a deal done.

“At the end of the day, it appears that Coast Mountain has said ‘We’re simply going to save the wages for 4,000-plus members who are off the job and still not settle with CUPE.’ And we say that they should be incorporating the cost of those lost wages in their decision not to reach an agreement,” he said Tuesday.

“They somehow think the cost of that is worth impacting thousands of workers directly employed by the system and the public. And we say the obligation to the public is too big to allow these unaccountable executives to get away with that once again,” McGarrigle added.

He says Unifor has been in contact with the B.C. labour minister. He adds there are great concerns about CUPE 4500 potential plans to escalate job action if an agreement is not reached, and how such a move could further affect Unifor’s members.

Unifor warns Coast Mountain ‘the bill’s coming to you’ if members remain off work

When asked whether Unifor members were being paid during the two-day strike period, McGarrigle would not directly confirm or deny that. Instead, he said the union had not “made a determination” yet because it was “going to pursue with all vigour that we believe that the company should pay for it.”

“The message that we’re saying to the company: You want to have a dispute with CUPE, go ahead and have that dispute. But if it puts our members out of work, the bill’s coming to you,” McGarrigle said, adding, “One way or another, we’re going to try to get some compensation for our members.”

“If it turns out that that ends up being a dead end, we’ll revisit that at that point. But we’re not going to tell our members that they’re getting strike paid when we actually believe they should be getting full pay,” he continued.

Meanwhile, the employer had little to say when CityNews reached out for a comment. Instead, it suggested the dispute could end quickly — if CUPE 4500 decided as such.

“If CUPE accepts the same wage increases Unifor already has, there would be no more labour action. The strike would end immediately,” Coast Mountain Bus Company said in a statement to CityNews.

Province urges both sides to make a deal

B.C. Labour Minister Harry Bains said Monday that it was disappointing that weekend mediation was not able to result in a deal.

He urged both sides to come back to the table to get an agreement in place.

“People across Metro Vancouver count on reliable transit to get them back to work, to work, to school and to travel to deal with their daily necessities of life,” he said Monday.

“We have reached out to both the employer and the union today to urge them both to get back to the bargaining table without delay and also to get involved in good-faith bargaining to hammer out an agreement to deal with their differences. Not having transit service is a huge challenge for the people who rely on transit.”

Bains would not provide a timeline as to when the province would step in. However, he says the B.C. government does have tools at its disposal, should they be required.

One option would be to appoint a special mediator — something that has been used in other labour disputes. This would allow for the mediator to make recommendations that would be made public. But Bains says this will only work if both parties agree to go this route.

Another would be for the province to mandate binding arbitration. However, Bains would not say whether this was being considered at this time.