Photo: Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 鈥� December 31, 2018: Bus driving on Granville Street. / Shutterstock
As the transit strike continues in Metro Vancouver, many bus passengers were left waiting a bit longer than usual during their Monday morning commute.
TransLink, the area's transit operator, lists hundreds of service alerts on dozens of routes across the Lower Mainland as聽Unifor聽bus drivers, SeaBus operators聽and mechanics enter Day 18 of a labour dispute with Coast Mountain Bus Company.
Currently, the transit operator has listed a whopping 427 advisory alerts under its 'bus' section. Of course, some of these are scheduled detours, and a few are due to traffic, but the vast majority are cancelled as a result of the transit strike.
For example, the #3 bus, which saw a few cancellations this morning, has a number of advisories listed for this afternoon and evening:
- 3 Main-Marine Drive Station trip leaving Eastbound W Cordova St @ Seymour St at 4:55 pm
- 3 Main-Marine Drive Station trip leaving Eastbound W Cordova St @ Seymour St at 4:55 pm
- 3 Main-Marine Drive Station trip leaving Eastbound W Cordova St @ Seymour St at 3:03 pm
- 3 Downtown trip leaving Marine Drive Station @ Bay 1 at 2:13 pm
- 3 Main-Marine Drive Station trip leaving Eastbound W Cordova St @ Seymour St at 5:24 pm
- 3 Downtown trip leaving Marine Drive Station @ Bay 1 at 4:31 pm
- 3 Main-Marine Drive Station trip leaving Eastbound W Cordova St @ Seymour St at 3:30 pm
- 3 Main-Marine Drive Station trip leaving Eastbound W Cordova St @ Seymour St at 3:30 pm
- 3 Main-Marine Drive Station trip leaving Eastbound W Cordova St @ Seymour St at 1:35 pm
- 3 Downtown trip leaving Marine Drive Station @ Bay 1 at 12:45 pm
As of 11 a.m. on Nov. 18, approximately 114 bus routes in Metro 麻豆传媒映画have advisory alerts. Some hard-hit routes include the busy line along Broadway and buses to Simon Fraser University, the University of B.C., the B.C. Institute of Technology and Capilano University.
"We鈥檙e expecting 5 to 10 per cent of service to be impacted today due to union job action," Ben Murphy, TransLink spokesperson, told 麻豆传媒映画 in an email.
"This morning 4 SeaBus sailings also had to be cancelled.聽 Customers should sign-up for transit alerts and check the TransLink website or Twitter account for the most up-to-date information and impacts being caused by union job action."
Murphy underscores that the view from Coast Mountain Bus Company is still that the union needs to be more realistic about their wage demands, and that its offer is in excess of other public sector settlements in British Columbia.
"Coast Mountain Bus Company has offered wage increases of more than $6,000 for transit operators and around $10,000 for skilled tradespeople.聽 This would bring transit operator salaries to just under $70,000, and skilled tradespeople salaries to around $88,000."
Unifor lead negotiator Gavin McGarrigle and other Unifor representatives聽held a news conference in New Westminster earlier last week.
McGarrigle mentioned how, 鈥淭ransLink CEO Kevin Desmond could see his pay soar by 25% to nearly $500,000 a year, while the head of the Toronto Transit Commission earns $150,000 less each year.鈥�
鈥淐MBC President Michael McDaniel has been on the job for about a year and a half and could see his salary soar by 18% to about $372,000,鈥� he said.
McGarrigle added that, 鈥渂oth of these transit executives make more than the Prime Minister.鈥�
鈥淭ranslink simply doesn鈥檛 treat its workers fairly. They divide their workers into separate companies and tell skilled trades not to compare their wages with each other. In the employer鈥檚 mind, a comparison to Toronto鈥檚 transit system is fine for executive wages, but it鈥檚 somehow offside for transit operators,鈥� said Gavin McGarrigle.
With files from the Canadian Press.聽
