After months of bargaining with their employer, Cowichan Valley transit workers walked off the job this week demanding improved working conditions, higher wages and better retirement packages.
Most transit services in the Cowichan Valley halted on Feb. 8 when workers hit the picket line after last-minute talks broke down between their union and their employer, Transdev. Unifor, the union that represents transit workers in the Cowichan Valley, has been negotiating with Transdev since April 2024 and voted to take strike action in November.
A total of 44 transit workers from Unifor Local 114 and eight HandyDART transit workers from Unifor Local 333BC are on strike. Last month, they refused to wear their uniforms “as a symbol of solidarity heading towards the Feb. 8 strike deadline,” a Unifor statement says.
“Strike action is not something we take lightly, but we will continue until our members are shown respect by the company,” Unifor national president Lana Payne said in the statement.
BC Transit, Transdev apologize for transit disruption
Transit services have mostly halted around the Cowichan Valley with few exceptions for people needing handyDart services to get to medical appointments such as renal-dialysis, cancer treatment or multiple sclerosis care. Inter-regional transit has also been suspended for Route 66 CVX Cowichan-Victoria Express and Route 99 SVX Shawnigan Lake-Victoria Express. The Nanaimo-Cowichan Express is still running but BC Transit says there will be no local service beyond drop off locations.
BC Transit contracts private companies, such as Transdev which is headquartered in France, to hire and manage some local work forces and, in this case, deliver transit services in the Cowichan Valley.
In a statement to The Discourse, BC Transit said it cannot comment on the strike at this time. However, a public statement from BC Transit says the organization is closely monitoring the situation and apologizes to customers for any inconvenience caused by the strike.
Meanwhile, Transdev said representatives from the company are “dedicated to finding a solution to this impasse,” according to a statement sent to The Discourse.
Transdev said it met with Unifor representatives on Feb. 7, prior to the strike. There was productive dialogue, according to Transdev, but the two sides are still divided.
“Our priority remains to reach a fair contract that balances the needs of our employees, Cowichan Valley transit riders, and taxpayers,” Emily Watson, Transdev’s senior vice president of Western Canada, said in the statement. “We sincerely apologize to the community for the inconvenience of this collective bargaining dispute.”
Closing the gap on the picket line
Unifor lead negotiator Gavin Davies said the wage gap between Cowichan Valley and Victoria transit workers has “ballooned” to more than $6 an hour.
“We want to stop the gaps from growing and start closing them,” Shaun Bhoondpaul, who has been a bus driver for 10 years, said. “It’s not parity that we’re asking for. We’re asking for those gaps to start going in the other direction to a reasonable number.”
Workers aren’t just seeing those gaps grow in wages, but also in their retirement packages and sick days. For comparison, transit in Nanaimo is operated by the City of Nanaimo and its workers start with 18 sick days per year. Under the previous agreement, Cowichan workers only got three, according to picket captain Sean Potorti.
“We’re dollars and dollars behind. What’s being pitched to us would put us further behind than we already are and there’s no way that we would be able to agree to anything like that,” Bhoondpaul said.
“Our drivers are having to move in together to be able to afford rent because one of them can’t pay, it’s a terrible situation,” Potorti said.
Potorti, who operates Route 66 from Duncan to Victoria, says that even though he drives the same bus on the same roads over Malahat Drive, bus drivers from Victoria still make more than him.
Another demand from the union is better working conditions for operators who say they often don’t have time to eat lunch or use the bathroom. It’s not uncommon for drivers to work a “straight shift” of 10 hours and only have a 15 minute break for the entire day, according to Davies. Workers want to see increased guidelines to mitigate long shifts and scheduling that accommodates breaks for drivers.
Broken promises for transit workers
At the time of story publication, Transdev had not yet scheduled further meetings with the union after negotiations broke down on Feb. 7 when talks shifted from benefits packages to wages.
“With any kind of fair bargaining, it’s a give and take,” Potorti said. “We were presented with one offer, and they did not deviate. They presented the same offer from a year ago with no change.”
For the last three years, Transdev has been promising to lease an office space in the Village Green Mall to allow for drivers to recover and use the washroom but never followed through, Davies said. As it stands now, drivers are forced to use a public washroom in London Drugs, which is often out of service or backed up with lines, which takes away from their already short breaks.
The lack of follow through on promises like that are why there’s not much trust between the union and Transdev, Davies said.
But the problem goes beyond Transdev and the Cowichan Valley. To the union and workers, it’s a problem that extends from the entire framework of outsourcing transit service to private for-profit companies.
“We’ve been saying to BC Transit for years now, you guys need to start taking responsibility for these contracts. Because you can’t just turn around and say, well it’s Transdev’s problem. It’s BC Transit’s problem,” Davies said.
Potorti and others on the picket line said strikes like these will continue to happen when a company doesn’t want to give up their profit margin and disregards the public and drivers.
“We’re willing to work with the company,” he said. “And we understand that they have to have a small profit margin to operate. That’s their mandate. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t negotiate a fair wage for your workers either.”
This current strike in the Cowichan Valley is another in a long line of transit worker strikes across B.C., with recent ones in the Comox Valley and Campbell River, which lasted 48 days.
As of right now, there is no clear end in sight for strike action in the Cowichan Valley.
“Bus drivers need to be protected, particularly when it comes to breaks and accessing safe and clean washrooms while on shift,” Unifor western regional director Gavin McGarrigle said in a statement. “It’s unacceptable to be behind the wheel for hours and denied a basic human right. We’re going to continue fighting until Transdev addresses this.”
