Transit woes continue after union, company fail to resume bargaining
Credit to Author: Nick Eagland| Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2019 00:50:07 +0000
Commuters can expect service interruptions to continue in Metro Vancouver, and the company is blaming the union for refusing to return to bargaining.
Coast Mountain Bus Company, the TransLink bus-operating company, said Thursday that representatives for the union, Unifor, refused to return to the bargaining table on Wednesday to discuss working conditions.
But the union says the company is playing games by refusing to agree to talk about the pay of transit workers in other cities and wage disparities within Metro’s system.
Contract negotiations between the union and company broke off on Oct. 31, prompting a strike that began on Nov. 1. The union started with what it described as “a measured level of strike action,” which involves transit operators refusing to wear uniforms and an overtime ban by the company’s technicians and other skilled-trades workers. It has not said when it will take its next step, expected to be ban on bus driver overtime.
Transit riders prepare to board a sea bus to North Vancouver from the Waterfront station terminal
Gavin McGarrigle, Western Regional Director for Unifor, said the company’s request to discuss only working conditions on Wednesday showed that it was willing to ignore key issues. He said the union has never been given a breakdown of the company’s insistence that union demands would cost $608 million over 10 years.
“The company has been engaged in attempts all week in saying how they want to go back to the bargaining table,” he said. “We’ve been saying consistently all week that as soon as we get a signal that they’re serious about addressing all of the outstanding issues, we can be back at the table of hours.”
McGarrigle said the company won’t discuss about comparisons with other transit systems, such as Toronto, and discussion about inequities within the current system.
For example, the union wants the company address a pay disparity of about $3 between Coast Mountain mechanics and electricians, and others doing the same jobs for TransLink proper, McGarrigle said.
“This is the kind of problem that we’re seeing,” he said.
“Despite the media spin that they want to go back to negotiations and have mediation, they have consistently refused to discuss these issues, they reject the comparisons, and they don’t want to talk about it. As long as that continues, our job action will continue. We have a 99 per cent mandate from our members. They’re very, very firm on this.”
McDaniel said Unifor has made “no attempt to find common ground” and won’t budge on its $608 million in demands.
“We’re ready to talk at the bargaining table but we can’t negotiate with ourselves,” McDaniel said. “We need the union to return to the bargaining table. Union representatives have repeatedly refused our suggestion of bringing in a third-party mediator to help resolve the situation.”
On Thursday, there were 16 SeaBus sailing cancellations as well as more than 40 interruptions to segments of bus routes, according to the union. TransLink said another 16 sailings will be cancelled Friday.
The more than 5,000 Coast Mountain Bus Company employees are represented by Unifor Local 2200 (maintenance and SeaBus workers) and Unifor Local 111 (bus and shuttle drivers).
It is the first time since 2001 that there has been a disruption to bus services due to a strike. That strike lasted four months.
The collective agreement between the company and union expired on March 31, 2019. As of February, bus drivers earned $32.61 hourly after two years of employment, according to the contract. SeaBus marine attendants earned $31.19 hourly after two years while boat masters earned $46.83, community shuttle operators earned $26.09, and mechanics and electricians earned $40.09.
Benefits include basic medical, extended health, dental, group life insurance, and transit passes for the employee and a spouse or child.
Unifor is seeking a 15.2 per cent increase compounded over four years for bus drivers and 16.7 per cent compounded over four years for maintenance workers.
The company said it has offered a 12.2-per-cent pay increase over four years for skilled trades, and 9.6 per cent over four years for transit operators, plus improved benefits and changes meant to improve working conditions for transit operators, including building more recovery time into the schedules.
The company says its offer is worth $71 million over 10 years but the union’s demands for increased wages and improved benefits and working conditions amount to an additional $608 million over that period.
“Our existing offer already gives bus operators and maintenance trade workers a larger wage settlement than other public sector workers, enhanced benefits, and addresses working conditions for bus operators,” Coast Mountain president Michael McDaniel said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
— With files from Jennifer Saltman and David Carrigg