Lessons from BC's longest bus strike as Fraser Valley bus stoppage continues

This story was published on March 29. You can find our latest story here.

One hundred and thirty-six days.

If you depend on buses in the Fraser Valley, you should probably know that number and what it represents: BC’s longest-ever transit strike

The strike wasn’t recent history; it happened just last year, a couple hours to the north in the Sea-to-Sky region.

With no talks planned between local bus drivers and their employer, and with the province declining to step in, we talked to a politician of another region that went through a months’ long strike last year.

No news is bad news

The latest news on the transit strike is not promising.

The Fraser Valley transit dispute has two key parties: CUPE, the union representing drivers; and First Transit, the private company (itself owned by a French conglomerate) that employs them and is contracted by BC Transit to provide bus services in the area. (Buses continue to run in Langley, where Translink operates transit service.)

CUPE, the union representing drivers and other transit workers, told The Current it had no new update to provide; most recently, it told The Current that no talks were planned.

In a statement provided by a spokesperson, provincial Labour Minister Harry Bains said “the best outcomes result from employers and unions being seated across the table, working collaboratively towards a collective agreement.”

Bains said he has “offered mediation services” to both sides but that neither has requested such assistance. Last week, Bains said “from time to time disruptions do occur in collective bargaining,” and that he doesn’t “believe in government interference in free collective bargaining.”

In the past, the province has been reluctant to step in. Its go-to mediator, Vince Ready, doesn’t like to step in until both sides feel some “pain,” Global reporter Keith Baldrey observed last week. “History and experience shows us these disputes have to go on for quite some time until an effective course of action is seen from an outside party.”

BC Transit, meanwhile, says that while it is “closely monitoring the situation and sincerely apologizes to customers,” it has no role in the labour dispute and won’t influence the bargaining process.

Asked if the lack of service would impact the revenue for contracted service providers, BC Transit said it couldn’t provide details on contracts “due to the nature of our competitive bidding process.” But it said the operators’ revenues and costs would both be affected.

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The longest strike

Jordan Sturdy, the MLA for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky region, says last year’s strike was “incredibly difficult” for both residents and visitors to the region.

“One of the pictures I have in my head was of tourists walking down the side of Highway 99 carrying skis,” said Sturdy. “It was really a difficult time for everybody and it kept going on and on.”

In the Fraser Valley, residents have said their jobs are in jeopardy and reported paying astronomical taxi and ride-share bills.

Although Sturdy asked the government to force the parties to the table and impose binding mediation early in the dispute, BC’s minister of labour declined to do so.

Like in the Fraser Valley, the strike involved a breakdown in negotiations between a private contractor and union—in this case PW Transit and Unifor. Sturdy believes the location of the Sea-to-Strike strike likely played a role in its length.

“Could you imagine a strike going on that long for Translink? It's unfathomable. It just wouldn't happen.”

The strike was only resolved after a special mediator appointed by the province recommended a mutually acceptable agreement.

For Sturdy, the strike also illustrated the lack of power that local governments have over such transit disputes and, often, the financial decisions that bring them to the end.

“The people who are paying the bills are not at the table,” said Sturdy. Cities and their residents depend on buses to be a key part of their transit system, and they pay for more than half the cost of running BC Transit. But when it comes time for negotiations between workers and their employer, they aren’t at the table and able to suggest resolutions.

“Local government is not there to influence the decision around the employer’s position at all,” he said. That not only means applying pressure on the parties to resolve differences, but also potentially offering more funding to operate a system with increasing labour and fuel costs.

“At this point, none of [the local governments] are at the table,” he said. “At the end of the day it's really up to the contractor.”

Sturdy, a former Pemberton mayor, said that is a gap “that needs to be remedied.”

(Other transit advocates have suggested that BC Transit stop contracting services to private companies.)

Those calls, and the recent dispute, come as transit advocates complain that the province is failing to adequately fund transit outside of Metro Vancouver.

Money talks, or doesn’t

Although the province recently handed Translink $479 million to solve its budget crisis, it has declined to boost BC Transit’s funding in recent years. That’s left cities that want to increase their own bus spending waiting for the province to pay its share. Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau criticized the lack of funding following the recent BC budget, and Sturdy had the same complaint.

“While the rhetoric is there, money talks,” Sturdy said. “I don't see that the money is there. You can talk about wanting to support and expand transit, but if you're not willing to contribute—there’s so much money out there. They’re trying to spend $6 or $7 billion dollars in a couple of months, yet they won’t put any money into transit.”

Systemic issues can also complicate contract negotiations, Sturdy said. One is the fact that the private companies’ contracts with BC Transit and their workers don’t necessarily sync up.

“The employer is in a bit of a tough situation,” Sturdy said. A company’s existing contract with BC Transit influences what it can offer to its workers. “You can't expect a company to agree to something where they're losing money.”

Still, the current situation was not unforeseeable.

The contract between the workers and First Transit expired on March 31, 2020, just after the start of the pandemic. First Transit still had no contract with its drivers when, two months later, the company signed the contract to continue operating the Fraser Valley transit system. (First Transit had been operating buses in the area since 2008.) That contract (the details for which are unavailable) is for nine years, with extensions possible for another six.

The lack of a contract with its workers, though, would have meant that First Transit signed its deal with BC Transit without long-term labour cost certainty.

Now, after years of high inflation, transit workers are demanding a 32% pay hike that would bring their wages in line with others in the region. The union says it also wants the establishment of a pension program, and better work-life balance.

Meanwhile, First Transit was sold last year to Transdev, a France-based transportation company that operates transport systems across Europe and North America. Transdev lost 70 million Euros in its last fiscal year, although those figures were heavily influenced by the pandemic.

Having recently watched his community deal with a long transit stoppage, Sturdy hopes the Fraser Valley can avoid such a protracted dispute.

“It was too harmful for the communities, to families, to employers trying to get their staff to work,” he said. “I hope the [Fraser Valley] dispute is resolved as soon as possible because I know what an impact it has on people who don't really have options.”