Union bosses say drivers will not wear their uniforms and maintenance workers won't work overtime. Richmond News file photo
Transit workers will go on strike Friday for the first time since 2001.
The union announced Thursday afternoon that it had called off talkswith Coast Mountain Bus Company, and that bus drivers, Seabus operatorsand maintenance workers will go on strike at 8 a.m. Friday.
Coast Mountain said it’s putting final preparations in place forFriday’s strike, adding that transit service will be impacted and therewill be service cancellations.
“While effects will vary across the region, we will do our best tocommunicate all of those service disruptions through our manycommunications channels,” said Coast Mountain’s president, MichaelMcDaniel during a press conference Thursday.
SkyTrain, Canada Line, West Coast Express, HandyDART and VancouverBlue Bus will not be affected by the strike, according to TransLink.
Unifor locals 111 and 2200 — which represent over 5,000 transitworkers — called off talks with the employer after claiming the companyfailed 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 29days, 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 overfour years,” said McDaniel. “Transit operators would see wage increasesof nearly 10 per cent over four years.”
McDaniel added that the current offer also includes an enhancedbenefit package and addresses working conditions and recovery time.
“I don’t know what contract talks Mr. McDaniel is following, but theemployer has made virtually no movement this week on the issues thathave got us to a 99 per cent strike mandate,” said Gavin McGarrigle,Unifor western regional director.
“Transit workers are very disheartened and Metro Vancouver’spassengers should be disappointed in (Coast Mountain’s) unwillingness tofind a solution.”
Without progress on breaks for operators, or consideration of paritywith similar workers across Canada and within TransLink’s system, unionmembers will escalate job action in the coming weeks, according toUnifor.