More than 3,500 bus drivers, mechanics, and office workers who are members of the Canadian Auto Workers and Office and Professional Employees International Union are fighting concession demands by the company. They voted by a 98.6 percent margin April 1 to reject a contract that would give the company the right to institute part-time work, contract out services, and cut routes.

Striking worker James Johnston said the union is demanding "No part-timers and no contracting out. No cutbacks to services because they are already cutting back on routes. We don't raise kids part part-time," he said, "we don't have part-time mortgages, we don't have part-time bills, we need full-time jobs to pay for a full-time life."

Among the union members participating in the action were striking workers at Purdy's Chocolates, who are members of Local 2000 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union. A letter of solidarity was sent to the rally from the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), representing bus drivers in Seattle. ATU members from Vancouver, who run the Handy Dart system, explained that they too face a contract fight this summer over many of the same issues.

Police officers attempted to shut down the rally, which sparked a march by workers for several blocks around the transit center, with strikers chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Translink has got to go!" In addition to rallies organized on an almost weekly basis, union members have distributed more than 50,000 leaflets around the city explaining their fight.

In a May 17 editorial, the Vancouver Sun threatened the strike by calling on Gordon Campbell, the newly elected Liberal party premier of British Columbia, to "fix the transit strike. And fix it fast." The editorial said public transportation, "at least for the many thousands of British Columbians who rely on it, is an essential service. The provincial government, therefore, has no choice, but to legislate them back to work."  
 
 
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