As of just after 5pm on Tuesday, it was confirmed that all TransLink bus and SeaBus service will resume on Wednesday, January 24th.
Public transport has announced that services will resume at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, but it will be some time before services are fully operational after 48 consecutive hours of suspension since Monday morning. right.
Bus and SeaBus system service should return to normal schedule by 5 a.m. Wednesday.
This is a short grace period from CUPE 4500 job actions. At this time, bus and SeaBus service is expected for at least one day.
Last week’s closure notice for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 4500 was limited to 48 hours starting Monday, Jan. 22 at 3 p.m., so services are being resumed. This means that 180 CMBC supervisors on the Bus and Seabus systems will temporarily suspend picketing activities and return to normal duties. This will also allow more than 5,000 bus drivers, engineers, mechanics, and other operation and maintenance workers who are unable to cross picket lines to return to work.
Normal service will resume, but CUPE 4500 members will return to the “basic” work behavior of no overtime that first began on January 6th.
If the two sides are unable to reach an agreement with the 180 CMBC supervisory authorities, further service outages are possible.
“The ban on overtime will continue.” [on Wednesday], and if no agreement is reached, the next escalation must be planned. Clearly, there will be further escalation than the current situation. We’re confident we’ll be able to announce something at some point,” CUPE 4500 spokesperson Liam O’Neill said at a press conference early Monday afternoon.
No agreement has been reached between the union and TransLink’s Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC), and neither side has yet set a new date for resuming negotiations.
SkyTrain, West Coast Express, West Vancouver Blue Bus, and other services are unaffected by the employment activity at this time and are operating normally.
However, with the B.C. Labor Commission set to hear CUPE 4500’s complaint and application for expanded employment activity as early as early next week, there is a risk that the employment activity will spread to other unions and services outside of the Bus and Seabus systems. . CUPE 4500 members must legally picket outside other public transportation facilities, including SkyTrain facilities. This could result in the suspension of SkyTrain and other services.
