Metro Vancouver SkyTrain workers vote overwhelmingly in favour of strike
Credit to Author: Jennifer Saltman| Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 01:07:40 +0000
Workers who operate and maintain Metro Vancouver’s Expo and Millennium SkyTrain lines have voted 96.8 per cent in favour of striking, as a complete, three-day shutdown of the bus and SeaBus system looms.
SkyTrain is running as usual and no job action has been planned, however, and the union representing 900 SkyTrain attendants, control operators, administration, maintenance and technical staff have mediated discussions planned with the employer, B.C. Rapid Transit Company (BCRTC), next week.
“This vote demonstrates that our members are deeply concerned that the Company has not addressed our key issues at the table,” CUPE 7000 president Tony Rebelo said in a news release. “It also reflects the frustration that many SkyTrain workers feel about how long the process has taken, after more than 40 sessions at the table.”
Canada Line and West Coast Express are not affected by this decision, as their workers are represented by different unions and have their own collective agreements.
Rebelo said the main concerns are wages, staffing levels, forced overtime and sick leave, and that the union is willing to sit down and bargain any time before mediation.
The company, however, plans to wait for the mediated sessions.
B.C. Rapid Transit Company president Michel Ladrak, in a statement, described mediation as a “very important and productive” way to resolve differences.
“British Columbia Rapid Transit Company (BCRTC) and CUPE 7000 have agreed to mediation beginning next week, and we are looking forward to those discussions helping us come to a fair and reasonable collective agreement,” Ladrak said.
A SkyTrain supervisor and transit customer cross paths at the Lougheed Town Centre SkyTrain Station in Burnaby on Thursday.
Rebelo said the company has offered a two-per-cent wage increase per year, but he wasn’t prepared to divulge what the union is seeking.
“We’re not prepared to bargain in the media; we want to bargain at the table,” Rebelo said. “We’re not asking for the moon, but we’re looking for something just a little bit more and something that will attract more talent to our organization.”
Wages for SkyTrain workers vary based on a person’s duties. On the low end, a receptionist or data-entry clerk makes $24.95 per hour and a customer service attendant makes $26.43 per hour, while an escalator/elevator technician, the highest-paid tradesperson, makes $49.94 per hour.
The vote comes as bus and SeaBus workers and maintenance staff prepare to walk off the job for three days next week.
The strike is scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with regular service resuming on Saturday, Nov. 30. To date, bus drivers have refused to wear uniforms every day since Nov. 1 and have refused to work overtime for three days. Another day of overtime refusal is set for Friday. Maintenance workers have been refusing overtime since Nov. 1.
Hundreds of bus and SeaBus trips have been cancelled as a result of the job action, causing delays and crowding for transit users. West Vancouver’s Blue Bus and HandyDART are still running regular service. Their workers are represented by different unions and contracts.
Wages are a major sticking point, along with working conditions for bus drivers.
Coast Mountain has offered a 12.2-per-cent pay increase for skilled trades over four years and a 9.6-per-cent pay increase for transit operators over the same period. Unifor had sought an increase of 15.2 per cent over four years for bus drivers and 16.7 per cent over four years for maintenance workers, and parity with drivers in other jurisdictions and maintenance workers within the transit authority.
Under the current contract, conventional bus drivers start at $22.83 an hour during a 30-day training period, then go from $24.46 an hour to $32.61 an hour after 24 months of employment.
On the issue of working conditions for bus drivers, the company offered, for the first time, guaranteed recovery time. Drivers would receive 40 minutes of recovery time per shift and be paid double for every minute of the recovery time missed because of traffic.
Bargaining broke off for the second time because the two sides were too far apart, however on Thursday the company asked — for a fourth time — for the union to agree to mediation.
“Over 350,000 people take the bus in Metro Vancouver every weekday. Commuters should not be put in the middle of this dispute,” Coast Mountain president Mike McDaniel said in an emailed statement.
Unifor western regional director Gavin McGarrigle, flanked by his bargaining team, speaks to reporters before bargaining with Coast Mountain Bus Company on Nov. 14.
Unifor western regional director Gavin McGarrigle said the union is not interested in mediation. He said it can be helpful when working through complex issues in bargaining, however he said the issues in this case are straightforward.
“They’re not actually interested in mediating the dispute, they’re interested in hiding behind a mediator and avoiding dealing with the real issues,” McGarrigle said. “We think this is just distraction and spin.”
McGarrigle said the union is available to return to bargaining, but wants to see the company come up with a better offer.
In preparation for the possibility of a transit strike, Metro Vancouver transit users are looking at other options to get around, such as walking, biking, taking their own vehicles, car sharing, carpooling and even camping on campus.
Posts and threads are appearing on social media — Facebook, Reddit, Twitter — and ads popping up on classifieds sites like Craigslist from people offering or looking for rides next week.
On Reddit, one poster in a University of B.C. group asked about where to pitch a tent on campus for the days the buses aren’t running.
Some people, however, are considering sitting out the strike.
Simon Fraser University student Colin Fowler, who uses transit to get from his home in north Coquitlam to Burnaby Mountain each day, said he and his friends have discussed carpooling or taking taxis for important exams, but otherwise skipping class because the campus is difficult to access from SkyTrain.
“It’s something students are terrified of, and the worst outcome for us,” he said of a full-scale bus strike.
Responding to questions about the job action from reporters in Victoria on Thursday, Premier John Horgan urged Coast Mountain Bus Company and Unifor to resume bargaining and avoid a full-scale strike next week.
“They’ve got the whole weekend to hammer out a deal, and I think that’s the best course, not just for the transit community but also British Columbia,” Horgan said.
Horgan dodged questions about whether transit would or should be designated an essential service because of the number of people who rely on it each day, instead reiterating that he believes bargaining is the way forward.
Last year, the bus system in Metro Vancouver saw an average of 931,000 boardings each weekday, and two-thirds of all transit journeys are made by bus.
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