The clock is ticking on a BC labour dispute with big local and global implications. The over 600 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union local 1724 who deliver specialized transit services to mobility challenged riders for Translink in Metro Vancouver will take strike action on August 26 unless their employer, Transdev, (a French multinational that administers the contracted out service for Translink) negotiates a tentative contract by August 25. rabble reached out to both Translink and Transdev for comment. Transdev VP Communications Stacy Patenaude responded by email, saying:
“We are aware that the Union has communicated to employees
their intention to strike on August 26th in the absence of a tentative agreement by August 25th. After 25 days of collaborative collective bargaining over 9 months, and a failed attempt at mediation the union walked away from, we are disappointed that our customers will potentially be in a position of reduced service and our employees’ livelihoods will be compromised. Transdev has offered significant wage increase between 23% and 32% depending on classifications, by January 1 2027. Our priority remains reaching a fair contract and as always, we remain open to resolving this matter in good faith.”
Translink responded thus: “HandyDART employees are employed by Transdev and TransLink is not at the negotiating table. As such, please reach out to Transdev for further information.”
A strike would affect many Metro Vancouver residents. In 2023, according to a Translink report, HandyDART in the region had 30,200 registered users. These riders requested 1,580,800 rides last year and 1,175,900 were provided. By my math, that comes to over 400,000 unmet requests. In addition, 86,500 calls to obtain a trip were abandoned by frustrated callers. Hardly a stellar record, despite Translink claims that customer satisfaction was high last year.
The decision to move to a strike was not taken lightly by the ATU workers, local president Joe McCann told rabble recently. (Full disclosure: I worked as a HandyDART driver for 20 years, during which time I was a member of ATU. I wrote about my experience for The Tyee online in 2009.)
McCann said that the union had held 22 bargaining sessions entailing over 200 hours at the negotiating table since serving the employer with notice to bargain in September of 2023, but Transdev refused to come to the table until the end of November.
McCann said that the union had already tried tactics short of a full strike, including a fare strike and refusal to work or book overtime, without seeing any substantive improvement in the employer’s offer. He pointed out that Transdev had suggested contract terms that would leave his members’ pay far behind that of other paid Transdev employees at the province’s Fraser Valley HandyDART services. This wage disparity, he told rabble, “…has resulted in terrible staff turn-over at our workplace and attrition levels that are more than double comparable jobs. Our main priority is to address this staff shortage by winning a fair and just wage… We started a series of escalating job actions in early July with the hope that Transdev would come to see reason and avoid a strike… Instead of negotiating however, Transdev has stonewalled in bargaining, and even threatened payroll disruptions against members who refused overtime to protest the company’s behavior. Enough is enough.”
ATU members clearly agree. In a vote on calling a strike, 95 per cent voted yes. 87 per cent of active members participated in the vote.
McCann went on: “Transdev has failed hundreds of workers and thousands of riders that need specialized transit to vital medical care, to see loved ones, and to attend day programs. Perhaps Transdev cares little about this impending work stoppage because they’re based abroad and only care about their bottom line, but we once again are calling on Translink to step in and direct their contractor to bargain a fair deal.”
The need for specialized transit service for riders with mobility challenges led to the creation, in 1981, of the Pacific Transit Co-op, a user-controlled body of potential users, and the granting of a contract for BC’s first HandyDART service to the Co-op. By the time the capitalist fever dream of contracting out and privatizing government services led to the HandDART contract for service delivery in Metro Vancouver being given to a for-profit firm in the first decade of the new century, the rider-controlled Co-op had operated for 27 years without a labour dispute. If Metro Vancouver HandyDART workers were to go on strike, the ATU says, this would be the third major transit work stoppage in BC against Transdev in less than two years.
Since contracting out, which has featured a revolving door of different for-profit HandyDART contractors, Transdev, the current contractor and the earlier for-profit contractors have presided over a withering service that shortchanges employees and riders alike. In fact, the union says that seven mayors and five city councils have supported the union’s suggestion that HandyDART service be taken back in house, an approach that McCann describes as “completely feasible.” This makes the impending strike a part of the larger labour struggle against contracting out and privatization, the failed market fundamentalist approach that has done so much around the world to diminish public services and fatten corporate profits.
Take Action:
The hard working and dedicated HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver provide an important and difficult service to vulnerable riders who otherwise would be cut off from medical, work, educational and social opportunities. They deserve a fair contract. Please circulate this column widely to your networks and send an email to Transdev at: https://www.transdev.ca/en/contact-us/ and urge them to settle a fair contract with their Translink HandyDART employees before the union deadline of August 25.
Also, please contact Translink at:
https://www.translink.ca/about-us/customer-service/contact-information#corporate-information. Urge them to direct Transdev to settle a fair contract with its workers immediately. In the longer term, urge them to heed the calls from local government and the ATU to bring delivery of HandyDART services in house. The long global debacle of service contracting out and privatization has been a disaster for workers and the public; let’s take profit gouging out of the equation in the delivery of public services! This is a needed reform on many fronts, and Translink could take an important step toward better service and better governance by heeding this call in the context of HandyDART services.
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