One of British Columbia’s best-known labour mediators is stepping in with an 11th-hour bid to prevent a disruptive transit strike in Metro Vancouver.
Vince Ready has invited unionized bus and SeaBus supervisors and the Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) back to the bargaining table ahead of a possible full-blown strike, set for Monday morning, according to CMBC.
Both the company and the union have accepted the invitation for talks starting Saturday.
Without a deal, about 180 CUPE Local 4500 supervisors say they will escalate to a full-blown strike, setting up picket lines for 48 hours effective 3 a.m. on Monday. Other unionized workers in the TransLink system are expected to honour those picket lines.
The potentially resulting bus system shutdown has the Metro Vancouver business community worried.
“There are 300,000 people a day that take the bus and SeaBus, and if they’re not able to get to work many of these small and medium businesses might not even be able to open their doors, so we are very concerned,” Greater Vancouver Board of Trade president and CEO Bridgitte Anderson told Global News.
“We are urging the provincial government to intervene if necessary to get a resolution to ensure a strike doesn’t happen next week.”
Transit supervisors, who have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2022, launched job action on Jan. 6 with an overtime ban.
The union’s key demands are increased staffing levels and a significant wage increase.
Coast Mountain Bus Company spokesperson Mike Killeen told Global News Friday that the company was “extremely disappointed” at the threat of a work stoppage.
Killeen said supervisors have been offered a 13.5 per cent wage increase over three years.
“That is consistent with what all other CMBC unions agreed to in their recent contracts. It’s also in line with other public sector unions,” he said.
“A demand of a 20-25 per cent wage increase over three years, which is what the union is seeking, is frankly unreasonable. It’s unrealistic.”
The union maintains that the wage issue is not about the annual wage increases, it’s that the base wages those increases would be applied to are not equal to what supervisors elsewhere under the TransLink umbrella are earning.
“We regret the disruption passengers have been experiencing, and that it will get more intrusive and challenging come Monday,” CUPE 4500 spokesperson Liam O’Neill said on Thursday.
“We’re completely open to mediation if the employer is willing to do so.”
While a full-blown strike is expected to grind bus and SeaBus service to a halt, at this point it is not expected to affect SkyTrain service.
The bus company is urging commuters to sign up for transit alerts and follow its social media accounts for up-to-date information on transit service. It has also created a website for updates related to job action.