Starting this Thursday, public transit riders in the Central Okanagan will not have pay to take the bus.
While the free ride may sound enticing to some users, the move is part of an ongoing labour dispute that may escalate even further to no bus service at all.
“Our members care deeply for our riders and the community, and we are exercising restraint and doing everything we can before shutting down bus service,” said Al Peressini, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Local 1722.
Kelowna Regional Transit drivers represented by ATU Local 1722 will refuse to collect fares from transit riders to try and force the employer, First Transit, to negotiate a new contract.
“Management refuses to fix our system, fund it, and make it fair, so we are asking the riding public to refuse to pay fares until those priorities improve,” Peressini stated in a news release issued Tuesday morning.
ATU said its members will not enforce fare collection and asks riders not to purchase new passes until the dispute is resolved.
The fare collection refusal marks the union’s second official job action.
Last Friday, transit drivers that operate buses across the Central Okanagan stopped wearing company uniforms.
At last word, the union and employer were said to still be “miles apart” on key issues like wages and benefits.
According to ATU, transit workers in the Central Okanagan are currently earning $5-$10 less than comparable transit systems in the province.
Union members say the transit system cannot continue to run without offering workers a living wage in one of the most expensive and fastest-growing cities in Canada.
“Our members at Kelowna Regional Transit have been putting their lives on the line every day at work since the pandemic began. Unfortunately, First Transit refuses to treat them as the heroes they are,” said ATU International President John Costa. “Our members have been left with no other option but to escalate our campaign to demand a fair contract and a robust transit system that our riders and community deserve.”
ATU is asking for the public’s help, namely to contact their provincial representatives to demand that they take responsibility for the consequences of contracting out a public, tax-funded service to a for-profit corporation.
“The buck stops with BC Transit,” said Peressini. “The province contracted this out to First Transit, sets the terms and funding of that agreement, and in doing so incentivizes First to treat workers and riders this way.”
The job action involves 240 workers, most of them drivers.
In an email to Global News, BC Transit would only say “BC Transit cannot provide comment as it’s inappropriate to comment on active negotiations between First Transit and its unionized employees.”
First Transit has not yet responded to Global News.