Kelowna transit strike ending after 1 day as parties head to arbitration

A Kelowna transit bus is seen in this photo from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1722 website. (younified.ca)

Striking transit workers in Kelowna will return to work after just one day on the picket lines after the union and its employer agreed to proceed to binding arbitration.

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1722 began its strike Wednesday, shutting down nearly all BC Transit service in the Central Okanagan region, with the exception of essential handyDART trips.

In a brief statement on its website, the union framed the latest development as its employer First Transit Canada agreeing with "the union's original offer to go to binding arbitration to resolve the outstanding monetary package."

The union also noted that the strike would go ahead on Wednesday, as planned, because of the lateness of the notice. Workers will be back on the job Thursday, the statement reads.

For its part, First Transit – a contractor that runs the Kelowna regional transit system on behalf of BC Transit – issued its own statement Wednesday, saying it agreed to binding arbitration following bargaining on Tuesday.

"We thank the residents of Kelowna for their patience and understanding, and join BC Transit in apologizing for the impacts caused by any loss of service today," the employer said. "We look forward to the resumption of normal operations tomorrow, and also to working together with the members of ATU Local 1722 to continue serving the citizens of Kelowna."

Before Wednesday, union members had been refusing overtime for several weeks as part of a job action aimed at compelling First Transit to fix what the union calls Kelowna's "broken transit system."

According to the ATU, the overtime ban led to a 20-to-30-per-cent reduction in transit service in the region, something the union says is "a direct result of how understaffed and underfunded the transit system is."

First Transit disputed that figure in a statement to CTV News over the weekend, saying its "service delivery rate" was 88 per cent during the union's job actions.

On Tuesday, as negotiators from both sides met to discuss their impasse, First Transit released some details of its offer to the union.

The employer said it offered total wage increases of "up to 9 per cent" over three years, including cost of living adjustments in years two and three.

First Transit said it had also proposed adding 13 full-time operator positions with benefit packagest, an increase of roughly 11 per cent to the union's full-time workforce in Kelowna.

BC Transit said on Twitter Wednesday that it was "pleased" that the employer and the union would be taking their dispute to arbitration and "looking forward to service resuming" on Thursday.