Chilliwack to join Abbotsford, regional district, in calling for transit strike mediation – BC

The Metropolis of Chilliwack will be a part of different municipalities within the Fraser Valley in an enchantment to the province to nominate a mediator in a month-long transit strike within the area.

Bus drivers and upkeep employees with CUPE Native 561 walked off the job on March 20, reducing common bus service to Abbotsford, Aggasiz, Harrison, Chilliwack, Hope and Mission. HandyDART continues to function at important service ranges.

On Wednesday, Chilliwack council voted to hitch the cities of Abbotsford and Mission together with the Fraser Valley Regional District in a name for a mediator.

The movement notes that contract bargaining is protected against interference underneath B.C.’s Labour Relations Code, and that municipalities have a long-standing rule of not commenting on negotiations.

Nonetheless, it notes the province’s Minister of Labour has the flexibility to weigh in to help with mediation and arbitration.

“We will’t actually communicate into it as a result of it’s not one thing we are able to do, however we are able to do that,” Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove informed council.

Coun. Jeff Shields referenced final 12 months’s protracted transit dispute in Squamish, Pemberton and Whistler, including the town wanted to do what it might.

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Fraser Valley transit strike continues

“I feel its a grand thought, we’re one month into it and there’s a complete deadlock,” he stated. “We’ve seen what occurred within the Sea to Sky hall the place it lasted six months and there didn’t actually appear to be an entire lot that occurred, so I feel there must be a push from the municipalities which can be actually affected.”

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Transit employees are locked in a dispute with First Transit, a U.S.-based contractor that operates Fraser Valley bus service on behalf of BC Transit.

Staff have been and not using a contract since April, 2020, and the union says it’s pushing for a pension and wage parity with transit employees elsewhere in Metro Vancouver.

Earlier this week, Labour Minister Harry Bains informed International Information he had supplied mediation providers, however that each events within the dispute had but to return to the conclusion they wanted it.

“Mediation can’t assist for my part till they agree and so they’re prepared for mediation,” he stated.

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