CUPE faults First Transit, says employer was not interested in stopping bus strike

“The buses say B.C. Transit, the buildings say B.C. Transit, and the cheques that First Transit is still receiving throughout this strike say B.C. Transit, but the workers don’t earn B.C. Transit wages or a pension,” said the rally’s host, CUPE B.C. President Karen Ranalletta.

CUPE says negotiations with the employer, First Transit, have been stalled for several weeks.

“It’s time for B.C. Transit to take responsibility for the failure of their contractor, and do the right thing to support transit users and workers in the Fraser Valley,” said Ranalleta, who questioned the wisdom of allowing public transportation services to be contracted out to a foreign corporation that has no connection to the communities it is serving.

“First Transit is unaccountable. By continuing to put their own profits ahead of fairness for workers, they only fail the residents who rely on those services,” she said.

CUPE 561 members Elizabeth Roux and Richard McManus, both drivers and trainers, shared some of the on-the-ground realities of the struggle that has led to the strike.

“Some of our most senior drivers who have given 20 to 30 years of their lives to providing public transit for their community have been forced to continue working well into their retirement years because they cannot afford to retire,” said Roux.

Unionized bus drivers walked off the job on Monday, March 20, impacting bus service in Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Mission, Agassiz-Harrison, and Hope, and the Fraser Valley Express commuter route.

by Mike Vanden Bosch

CUPE faults First Transit, says employer was not interested in stopping bus strike

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