SkyTrain staff vote for strike action, adding to transit chaos

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Staff at the light-rail SkyTrain system across the Vancouver region have voted overwhelmingly for strike action, adding to the chaos in the transit system ahead of a planned three-day walkout by bus and SeaBus operators next week.

The SkyTrain situation, announced Thursday, raises the prospect of new challenges for passengers amidst labour disputes over the operation of the system that moves 350,000 passengers daily.

Local 7000 members of CUPE voted 96.8 per cent in favour of job action, with an 87.3-per-cent turnout that the union said, in a statement, was its highest-ever turnout for a strike vote.

Meanwhile, Premier John Horgan is ruling out government intervention despite opposition criticism that the province is allowing the disputes to continue. “I appreciate that I’m a broken record on this, but timing is everything when there’s a labour dispute in play, and I believe the time right now is for free collective bargaining to run its course,” Mr. Horgan told a news conference in Victoria.

Despite the SkyTrain workers’ strike vote, Tony Rebelo, president of Local 7000, said there are no plans for a walkout.

Instead, Mr. Rebelo said that the local has offered to bargain with the employer for four days starting Friday to get closer to consensus ahead of eight days of mediation booked to begin next Thursday and run into mid-December.

In response to the union’s proposal, a TransLink spokesperson issued a statement that said the British Columbia Rapid Transit Company, the employer, will be respecting the “formal process.”

The statement also said, “Mediation is a sensible way forward to help resolve outstanding issues between the two parties.”

Mr. Rebelo said that management has yet to respond to the union’s offer.

Issues include wages, staffing levels, forced overtime and the sick plan for about 900 attendants, control operators, administration, maintenance and technical staff for the automated SkyTrain system, without drivers, that runs through several Vancouver-region municipalities.

The labour situation does not affect the Canada Line, which runs from Vancouver to Richmond, with two lines that run to the airport and into the northern part of the city, or the West Coast Express commuter railway into the Fraser Valley.

At the same time, the union representing operators and maintenance workers for Metro Vancouver’s buses and SeaBuses – the passenger-only ferries that link Vancouver and North Vancouver across Burrard Inlet – said workers would not work for three days next week.

The strike action planned for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday comes after the limited job disruptions that started Nov. 1 with an overtime ban by mechanics and then expanded to add bus drivers when talks broke off between the two parties last week.

Coast Mountain Bus Company called for a mediator after negotiations broke off. But Unifor, which represents the workers, argued the company is not serious about moving forward with the union’s core issues of wages, benefits and working conditions.

Unifor plans to train picket captains to ensure peaceful protests during the three days next week, as well as holding a public rally at TransLink’s headquarters in New Westminster on Nov. 28.

Workers are seeking higher wages and better working conditions.

A spokesperson for Unifor said Thursday there has been no change in plans for next week’s walkout.

Mr. Horgan said the weekend is available for the parties to work, at the bargaining table, on a solution.

“And I’m confident that if they roll up their sleeves, they can get a freely bargained agreement that will meet the needs of the employer, employees and most importantly, the people that depend on public transit,” Mr. Horgan said.

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