Advertisement

District of West Vancouver and Blue Bus union reach new collective agreement

Drivers and operators of West Vancouver's Blue Bus system will not be striking as a deal with the district was reached Wednesday morning. Global News

The union that represents public transit bus drivers in West Vancouver announced Thursday that it has reached a deal with the district for a new collective agreement.

The union will be ending all job action on Thursday.

“We are pleased to announce that ATU Local 134’s offer to go to binding arbitration to resolve all outstanding issues needed to reach a new collective agreement has been accepted by the West Vancouver District (Thursday) morning,” said Cornel Neagu, ATU Local 134’s president.

“We have ended plans for rotating strikes and we will also end the overtime and uniform ban (Thursday).

The deal was reached after months of contentious negotiations, where Neagu was publicly unhappy with the tactics being used by the district.

Story continues below advertisement

The union said the tactics included personally emailing drivers to ask if they would work overtime and break the overtime strike that was being imposed by the union.

Blue Bus drivers and mechanics were seeking wage increases to match other municipal transit employees around the Lower Mainland.

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

The agreement was reached on the eve of “further job action,” which was slated to begin on Thursday.

Click to play video: 'Public transit could be halted in the Central Okanagan just as a new school year begins'
Public transit could be halted in the Central Okanagan just as a new school year begins

West Vancouver’s Blue Bus system transports around 18,000 passengers per day.

Global News has reached out to the District of West Vancouver for comment.

Click to play video: 'Tug strike strands cruise passengers in Vancouver for a day'
Tug strike strands cruise passengers in Vancouver for a day

Sponsored content

AdChoices