Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

Bus drivers, tradespeople and maintenance workers voted 98% in favor of a strike to support their demands for a fair collective agreement. The union has been working under a wage freeze for two years. However, the union has 90 days after a strike vote to serve notice.

Both parties signed more than 25 tentative agreements indicating their approval of negotiated items. Members of TWU then rejected a fact-finder’s report that recommended a resolution of the final article of the contract.

Learned that there is the possibility of a strike by Teamsters Canada Rail Conference representing CP Rail train crews and rail traffic controllers. A strike could occur as early as midnight Tuesday.

Under the agreement, each of the 210 members of the Fraternal Order of Transit Police will receive a $1,250 bonus immediately and a 12% increase in pay over four years.

Working out details with Veolia Transportation Services, the city of Tempe, Metro light rail and the Regional Public Transit Authority to offer three days of free transit service in June or July to make up for the inconvenience of a strike that affected about half of the agency's 101 bus routes.

Bus company negotiators and union drivers will resume talks in an attempt to avert a strike. Nearly all of the system’s drivers voted to reject a labor contract proposal and authorize a possible walk out, due to a dispute over wages, health insurance and sick leave.

Ontario, Canada’s Liberal provincial government voted to make transit an essential, uninterruptible service and rushed the bill through the legislature to ensure it was in place before the current contract with the city and the ATU expired.

About 214 workers were due to walk out on Tuesday morning in YRT's southwest division after talks between Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 and Veolia Transportation Services Canada broke down.

A possible strike loomed if the rank and file had voted not to ratify the tentative agreement worked out by management and union negotiators. A previous tentative agreement between the parties did fail to win ratification in two previous votes, most recently on Dec. 23, 2010.

The extension agreement averts a possible strike by CTTRANSIT employees in the Hartford, New Haven and Stamford divisions that could have occurred at midnight on Dec. 31, 2010.