Editor’s note: This story has been changed to reflect the difference between bus operators and drivers.
In quick succession, contract talks for companies that manage more than 600 school bus drivers in eastern Ontario have gone from friendly to deadlocked.
Now, the bus operators say they’ve been locked out, and the company that brokers their contracts is looking for replacements before the impending school year.
According to the Eastern Ontario Bus Operators, which represents bus companies in the area that employ roughly 620 bus drivers who service the Upper Canada District School Board and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario, after contract negotiations came to a standstill earlier this week, bus operators received the news Wednesday they had been locked out.
Student Transportation of Eastern Ontario (STEO), the not-for-profit that organizes the deals between the two school boards and bus operators, denies that the bus companies have been locked out.
According to Janet Murray, general manager and CAO of STEO, school bus companies in the area currently do not have access to the organization’s September routing information, which may have led some bus operators to believe there was a lockout.
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“At this juncture, with no contract in place for September and significant routing uncertainties, it would be irresponsible for STEO to continue to make that information available to them. From a safety and logistical perspective, we don’t want operators planning for or communicating to families routing information that is not definitive,” Murray said in an emailed statement Thursday.
In a news release sent out on Monday, the STEO said the two parties were “very far apart” and warned that there might be service disruptions come September after the bus operators rejected a deal that offered raises that surpassed inflation.
A statement from the bus operators sent out Tuesday said the STEO offered an ultimatum, which was not accepted, but that the bus drivers wanted to take the matter to mediation.
Then, Wednesday evening, the bus operators said they were locked out and that the STEO was looking for other drivers to fill the routes.
“In another shocking move, STEO has also issued a tender in a desperate search for outside companies to take over the routes now being serviced safely and efficiently by long-standing local drivers and operators,” a statement from the bus operators said.
Murray noted that STEO’s most recent offer to the bus companies “remains open for discussion in the hopes of achieving resolution with existing bus companies.”
She said one bus operator has signed on to provide service in the fall, and that STEO has gone ahead with an “emergency limited tendering” for routes that may require service.
Murray also said that the bus companies refused to take part in an annual meeting this month that the STEO holds every year to prepare for the school year, saying the bus operators did not see “any prospect of reaching an agreement for service in September.”
The Eastern Ontario Bus Operators says currently, drivers make around $19 an hour, and that their drivers have been “underpaid” for years.
It also noted that the process of finding more than 600 new drivers for a very large geographical area could take months, meaning many parents will be without buses come back to school next month.
Murray said the STEO and the school boards continue to “look at all options to have service in place for families for September,” and that plans will be communicated with parents accordingly.
Unifor, which represents the actual drivers in the area, says that the union has not received any information about a lockout, and that the drivers themselves are not involved in these negotiations.
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