Transco bus drivers have voted 85 per cent in favour of going on strike.
The vote came during a general meeting of union members Wednesday while they were on a one-day walkout.
Wednesday’s strike follows two others at the end of January in a dispute over wages with their employer, Autobus Transco. Union executives had reached a tentative agreement Feb. 12, but members voted 83 per cent to reject the deal.
“They want to give us a five-year contract, and for us, we’d like maybe a three-year contract would be a lot better,” bus driver Brenda Frank explains.
She says a five-year contract is too long so they’ve proposed a three-year contract with annual pay increases of two per cent .
WATCH: Montreal school bus drivers reject deal, strikes possible
Transco’s offer is a variable annual increase over five years, up to two per cent for the last two years.
The drivers make about $20,000 annually and have been without a contract since last year. They say they deserve more for the number of hours they put in and the responsibility they have to shoulder.
“We have no insurance, no pension plans, it’s disgusting,” Frank said.
The strike Wednesday affected around 15,000 students in the four main public Montreal school boards as well as a private school in Lachine.
“We’re sorry,” Frank said. “We don’t want to inconvenience them, but we want to be heard.”
Fellow driver Marco Baiocchi agrees. “This is our only way to fight. “There’s nothing else we can do!”
Henner says the company is anxious to resume negotiating because a prolonged strike will hurt everyone.
“We’re open to sitting down again with them, rearranging if necessary,” she says, “so that they can go and vote again and we can have a new collective agreement as soon as possible.”
The union says it’s now waiting to see what new offer the company makes before deciding on a start date for the general strike.