Transit workers from the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4500 picket outside of the Lonsdale SeaBus station in the rain during a strike in North Vancouver, B.C., on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan CairnsETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
More than a quarter of a million Metro Vancouver residents scrambled for ways of replacing their daily bus rides after transit supervisors started a two-day strike over stalled contract talks with the operator of the region’s public bus system, Coast Mountain Bus Company.
Rush hour traffic snarled arterials heading into Vancouver on Monday morning, while local taxi companies told customers waits for rides would be as long as 30 minutes. Angry commuters posted screengrabs on social media of their Uber fares “surging” to three times the normal price. Both Vancouver International Airport and BC Ferries warned passengers that transit to and from terminals could be delayed.
Although the strike involves only about 180 unionized transit supervisors who belong to CUPE Local 4500, bus drivers across the region would not cross the picket line. This brought the bus system to a halt, including the SeaBus ferry between downtown and the North Shore. The union said in a news release that the strike would last for 48 hours, beginning at 3 a.m. Monday.
The union’s members, who oversee the day-to-day functioning of the bus system, are seeking a 25-per-cent wage increase, which they say would bring their pay in line with that of their counterparts at the SkyTrain subway system. The strike began after the breakdown of a marathon mediation session between the transit supervisors and the Coast Mountain Bus Company, a subsidiary of the Translink transit authority.
Hundreds of thousands of riders were still able to access the subway system, which serves Vancouver and a handful of its eastern and southern suburbs, but CUPE 4500 is seeking the right to picket the subway as well. The union has made a Labour Relations Board complaint in which it argues that the agencies running these subway lines are trying to “reduce the impact” of the strike on riders. There is no timetable for the provincial tribunal to hear the complaint.
CUPE Local 7000, the union representing SkyTrain workers, said in a statement that it would respect any new picket lines. This could bring public transportation to a standstill in a region with the fifth-highest ridership among North American cities.
“We’ve done everything we could up to this point to try to avoid this,” CUPE Local 4500 spokesperson Liam O’Neill said Monday afternoon. “We prefer to be at the table and to discuss the issues and to try to resolve it, but Coast Mountain doesn’t seem have that same sense of will to get a deal.”
The union has said wage gaps between its members and other TransLink supervisors must be closed before any lasting settlement is reached.
“With the help of our mediator, CUPE 4500 put in an honest effort to find some common ground with Coast Mountain,” Mr. O’Neill said. “But we are still not near where we need to be in addressing our key issues.”
Coast Mountain president Michael McDaniel said in a statement that the union has refused to adjust its demand for the sizeable increase, despite efforts to reach a compromise.
The bus company “offered increased overtime pay, improved benefits, and committed to hiring more supervisors,” Mr. McDaniel said. “Unfortunately, the union again refused the improved offer. This is unacceptable and unreasonable.”
Harry Bains, British Columbia’s Minister of Labour, held a news conference Monday afternoon in which he urged the two parties to come back to the table with long-time mediator Vince Ready. Mr. Bains said he is considering appointing a special mediator, who would have the power to put more pressure on the parties, including by making certain recommendations public.
Mr. Bains shot down a suggestion from BC United Party Leader Kevin Falcon, who called on the province’s NDP government to designate the transit system an essential service and order staff back to work. Mr. Bains noted that Coast Mountain would have to apply to the Labour Relations Board for this to happen. It has not yet done so.
Tourists expressed frustration on Monday as the labour disruption upended their plans. Jorge Correa, a Chicago resident who was exploring the Lower Mainland with Roger Leyton, from Mexico, said they had hoped to go to Vancouver Island. But, with no bus to get them to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, they had to make other plans.
“This is our last day here,” Mr. Correa said. “We couldn’t go, so we are upset about that.”
TransLink chief executive officer Kevin Quinn said in a statement that he is “frustrated and disappointed” by the strike, which he said had affected 300,000 Coast Mountain customers and left thousands “stranded.”
He said TransLink is in a “fiscal crisis” and facing a $4.6-billion structural deficit over the next 10 years, and that the transit supervisors’ union is demanding wage increases that are “significantly more” than the 13.5-per-cent over three years accepted by all other Coast Mountain unions.
“Now is not the time to be demanding wage increases that are far beyond everyone else,” Mr. Quinn said. He urged both sides to get back to the negotiating table.
With a report from the Canadian Press