While 330 school bus drivers employed by Autobus Transco and affiliated with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) were poised for a second consecutive day of a strike, a work stoppage has been avoided by about 60 of their colleagues in Longueuil who are affiliated with the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec.
In Montreal about 15,000 schoolchildren using 300 bus routes have been affected by the two-day, Tuesday-Wednesday strike in the following school boards: Lester B. Pearson (55 routes), Marguerite-Bourgeoys (82 routes), English Montreal (88 routes), the Commission scolaire de Montréal (59 routes) and the privately administered Collège Ste-Anne (18 routes).
On Tuesday, Carole Laplante, the president of the Transco bus drivers’ union, said negotiations with management were at a standstill.
The sticking points are salaries and the duration of their collective agreement.
Union members are not paid an hourly wage but rather a flat sum of $530 a week over the course of a split shift covering mornings and afternoons.
Depending on the length of the route, drivers can see their work week vary from 20 to 25 to 35 or even 40 hours a week, creating an hourly wage that can vary from $13.25 to $26.50.
The union is seeking annual pay hikes of two per cent over a three-year contract.
In Longueuil, the union representing 60 drivers and 10 mechanics reached a two-year agreement with Autobus Longueuil that will see drivers receive a 2.3 per cent increase in salary retroactive to July 1, 2017 and another 2.28 per cent raise as of July 1, 2018.
Laplante thinks the Longueuil settlement “bodes well” for her own union.
“We do a job that isn’t very easy, that’s demanding,” she said. “We do a good job, I think we deserve it.”
The Longueuil agreement avoids a strike that had been voted for by 98 per cent of the membership. The Transco union describes this week’s strikes elsewhere as a “pressure tactic” voted on by the membership.