The labour dispute has been happening for more than three weeks now, and it’s going to escalate further next week with three days of full shutdown.
So far, bus routes and SeaBus sailings have been affected. Soon, we will find out if SkyTrain is, too.
But I’m happy to tell you that HandyDART is not impacted by the current job action. This is because HandyDART is operated by a totally separate company that Translink contracts out the service to.
The main issues in the transit dispute are working conditions and wages. With bus ridership up so dramatically over the past few years, buses are frequently overcrowded. Bus operators aren’t getting the time required to take adequate bathroom and lunch breaks. A photo has gone viral of a microwave oven located a foot or two from a toilet in a North Van Translink bus drivers’ facility! While management insists they never put the microwave there, drivers have pointed out that they have precious little choice because break times and facilities are totally inadequate, and because the system as a whole is overloaded. (The microwave has since been removed.)
Translink’s 10-year plan envisions a 25% increase in bus service with the addition, in particular, of 11 new B-line bus routes. This will help, but not cure, the overcrowding and scheduling issues.
Unifor, the union representing bus and SeaBus workers, would like to see language in the collective bargaining agreement guaranteeing workers a suitable number of breaks during their shift. This is hardly an unfair request.
They would also like to see a narrowing of the gap between what mechanics who work on buses and SeaBus earn. vs. those who work on SkyTrain. Here’s the thing: TransLink owns Coast Mountain Bus Company, which runs SeaBus and the buses in most of Metro Vancouver (West Van is the exception). TransLink also runs a separate company that operates SkyTrain. The mechanics who look after our buses and the SeaBus now earn much less than those who work on SkyTrain.
Unifor would also like to narrow the gap between what bus drivers in Metro Vancouver earn compared to bus drivers in Toronto. On the face of it, given the much higher housing costs in Vancouver, this seems to me to be a fair request.
The last time there was a complete labour shutdown of our transit system was in 2001. It lasted four months. Let’s hope the employer can soon come to the table with a fair proposal, and we can avoid any further escalation of job action. We don’t need a repeat of 2001!
CLICK HERE to let Translink know you support transit workers!
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (Nov. 20 2019): 410.05 ppm
One year ago (Nov. 14 2018): 408.96 ppm
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