Union to plan further 'escalation' after Metro Vancouver transit service resumes Wednesday

The union representing 180 transit supervisors in Metro Vancouver says it will plan further ‘escalation’ when its 48-hour work stoppage ends early Wednesday.

When asked by reporters at a news conference what will happen when the two-day withdrawal ends, CUPE 4500 representative Liam O’Neill said the supervisor overtime ban—which has been in place since Jan. 6—will continue.

“Clearly we don't have a deal now. So we'll have to plan our next escalation. Obviously, it's going to be an escalation, which means more than the current one,” he said.

O’Neill did not elaborate, but said the union will be announcing its next steps “at some point.”

The vast majority of buses in the region, including the SeaBus, stopped running at 1 a.m. Monday after talks between CUPE 4500 and Coast Mountain Bus Company failed to end in an agreement.

Currently, bus and SeaBus service is expected to resume at 3 a.m. Wednesday.

The union spokesperson said the service disruptions come on the heels of 20 hours of mediated negotiations with CMBC.

“While we brought solutions and compromise, Coast Mountain Bus simply tried to bully us into accepting their proposals,” he said. “If they spent more time trying to get a deal at the table than trying to smear us in public, we'd already have a deal.”

The main impasse between the union and employer is what O’Neill describes as a wage discrepancy between CUPE 4500’s transit supervisors and other supervisors employed by TransLink.

The striking supervisors are not responsible for hiring, firing or disciplining workers, unlike other unionized supervisors. However, O’Neill argued that their jobs are “on par.”

He said the wage increase the union is asking for would account for a 0.05 per-cent-increase to CMBC’s annual budget for wages, salaries and benefits.

“Our proposal package that we've provided, we believe is reasonable and fair not only for our members, but for Coast Mountain.”

Meanwhile, CMBC says it too has offered a compromise, that its offer is also “fair and reasonable,” and calls the union’s wage proposal unrealistic.

Spokesperson Mike Killeen told CTV News Monday that CMBC tabled a hike in overtime pay, more benefits and a commitment to hiring more supervisors, as well as an “improved” wage offer.

“But that was not acceptable to the union; they’re still insisting on, from a wage perspective, almost double what all other CMBC unions agreed to in their recent collective agreements,” he said.

Killeen said the union is asking for raises between 20 and 25 per cent over the next three years, while CMBC offered 13.5 per cent—which he said is consistent with what other unions got.

O’Neill argues CUPE 4500 “never had an across the board 25 per cent wage increase.”

“What Coast Mountain and or TransLink put out as far as wages does not reflect the discussions that happened at the table,” he said. “When workers from one group do the same job as they do in another group, they should be paid the same wages. So if they're saying it's unrealistic to be paid fairly, that's fine, I'll let them say that.”

Both Killeen and O’Neill said they want to go back to the table—but blamed one another for slowing down the process over the wages rift.

“We're willing to go to the table if they're willing to negotiate, but they're not they're not willing to negotiate,” O’Neill said. “This employer is just unwilling to deal with the issue of the wage discrepancy that exists.”

“We’ve been available to be at the table at any time. The offer that was there was the offer that was there,” Killeen countered. “We hope that they can look at that realistically and get a deal done.”