The 3,300 strikers are members of Canadian Auto Workers. A month earlier, workers rejected the proposed contract and voted 98.6 percent in favor of a walkout. Coast Mountain Bus Company is a subsidiary of TransLink.

Strikers are opposing company moves to cut service, contract out some routes, and use part-time employees during peak periods. Despite a protest by workers at a March 31 TransLink board meeting, company officials voted to cut 160,000 hours of transit service worth Can$5 million (US$1 = Can$1.58). Against a union demand for an 18 percent wage increase over three years, the company is offering only an 8 percent wage hike. TransLink is also seeking to deepen the two-tier wage structure by extending from one to three years the time it takes for new hires to receive full pay.

At a support rally for the bus drivers on March 31, Avtar Sandhu told the Militant, "If we let TransLink do this, the same thing is going to happen to us that has happened to the bus drivers in Calgary. Everyone will become part-time in the next ten years." Some 2,000 transit workers in Calgary have been on strike since February 22.

"The key issues for the drivers are privatization and part-time work," said Raj Gill, a driver for two years. "If people think they are paying a lot of money for fares now, wait until they privatize. The bus service shouldn't be seen as a cash cow but as an essential service. The jobs won't be as well paid and the public is going to suffer and pay higher fares."

Workers last struck the bus lines in 1984 and were ordered back to work after three months. Negotiations broke down this time when TransLink applied to the Labour Relations Board for a ruling forcing the drivers and mechanics to vote on the company's last offer.

Last year bus drivers organized several protests and work stoppages against TransLink's decision to cut a bus route and contract it out to Bonny's Taxi Company. Bus driver Shail Passad commented, "Contracting out is an attack on our right to have a union."

One driver, Gord Fletcher, said that he had just started his job, and now "there are threats of layoff because of lack of funds to operate the system. The lack of funding comes from them spending money they didn't have. In orientation they told us it would be a long and fulfilling career, and now there is no money to back up their promise. Riders are supportive. Everyone says this company has mismanaged the bus system."

On the same day as the transit workers' walkout, office workers and security guards who belong to the Office and Professional Employees International Union went on strike. The security guards work for the Sky Train rapid transit system.

Other union members who operate the Sky Train have announced they will respect the picket lines. Sky Train bosses said they would ask for a rapid court injunction to end the picketing.

Some 45,000 hospital workers were also to start strike action April 1, but this was delayed when the Labour Relations Board backed an appeal by the employers that the unions had incorrectly issued their strike notice. Strike action is expected to begin this week, although most union members are designated as "essential" and barred by law from striking. Officials of the Hospital Employees Union say the employers are offering only half the pay increase sought by hospital workers. Another issue is pay equity, following a recent arbitration ruling that members of the union were owed more than $100 million in pay equity funds. The employers want to deduct this from any pay increases. The B.C. Nurses Union is also in negotiations and is demanding a 60 percent wage increase.

School support staff will start rotating strikes at Vancouver-area schools this coming week in their fight against the cutting of 24 full-time heating and ventilation jobs.

Joe Young is a meat packer.  
 
 
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