Bus company, union heading back to bargaining table

The Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) and the union representing transit supervisors in Metro Vancouver are set to resume mediation this weekend.

Mediator Vince Ready has invited CUPE 4500 and CMBC back to the bargaining table Saturday, ahead of a full service shutdown Monday.

“We hope that an agreement can be made that would avoid disruptions for our customers,” CMBC president Michael McDaniel said in a statement.

CUPE 4500 spokesman Greg Taylor confirms union negotiators will also be back at the table.

CUPE has said if an agreement isn’t reached by 3 a.m. Monday, there could be a full stoppage of bus and seabus serices in the Lower Mainland.

“That would “effectively [shut] down all bus services,” CUPE 4500 said in a statement Thursday.

In the statement, the union said it had been waiting over four weeks for Coast Mountain to respond to its latest proposal, saying, “Our patience for Coast Mountain to take bargaining and our issues seriously has been exhausted.”

This most recent threat of a strike comes after the union began an overtime ban on Jan. 6, with CUPE 4500 saying in a statement: “Our patience for Coast Mountain to take bargaining and our issues seriously has been exhausted.”

Right now, a transit supervisor makes about $92,400 a year, and they’re asking to be brought up to $115,400 in three years — a 25 per cent increase — according to CMBC.

The bus company is offering them just under half the increase the union is asking for.

Coast Mountain Bus Company spokesperson Mike Killeen says the union should come back with a more realistic wage offer, since it’s asking for nearly double the increase other CMBC unions have already agreed to.

“If they follow through on their threat to escalate, no impact on Skytrain,” he said. “This would be restricted to bus and Seabus, again, if it happens. Presumably, if pickets were set up by the union, other members of other unions wouldn’t cross those picket lines, and that’s going to cause a significant impact. But we really hope that this can be resolved at the bargaining table over the weekend.”

CMBC adds any service impacts due to job action will be communicated to customers as soon as possible.

With files from The Canadian Press, Charlie Carey, and Pippa Norman and Kier Junos..