A tentative agreement was reached between the union representing Greater Toronto Area school bus drivers and the bus operator Thursday morning following negotiations which stretched past the midnight strike deadline.
The deal, a first for drivers from First Student Markham, is now slated for ratification.
“We have a three-year agreement and I think our members will be pleased,” Debbie Montgomery, president of Unifor Local 4268, told reporters on Thursday. “This would be the drivers first collective agreement with Unifor. So we were pretty much starting from scratch. So that’s a lot of work.”
Both the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) said buses will operate as normal until the labour deal is ratified.
“First Student is happy that we were able to reach an agreement, and the community will have continuous school bus transportation. We look forward to the results of the ratification,” First Student spokesperson Jay Brock said in a statement.
School officials were advised the union only needed to give 72 hours notice before beginning any job action, but gave 10 days instead.
A possible strike could have affected nearly 2,500 TDSB and 6,000 TCDSB students. A York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) spokeswoman said around 3,500 YCDSB students and 6,500 York Region District School Board (YRDSB) students would be affected.
The union said that although a tentative deal has been reached, there are still some outstanding issues which the provincial government should now take notice.
“We’ve asked for a standard minimum wage to be applied to this industry and recognition of this job and the responsibility and that’s pretty important to us,” Montgomery said.
“We’ve asked for even more inspections. We’re concerned about the safety of the vehicles, the age of the vehicles being allowed on the roads.”
The union is also calling on the province to amend the Request For Proposals (RFP) process for handing out school bus contracts, which it maintains has directly led to many of the systemic problems in the industry.
-Cindy Pom contributed to this report
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