Talks resume as YRT strike enters 8th week
Posted December 12, 2011 5:27 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Talks have resumed between one union and one company in the York Region Transit (YRT) strike.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1587 and Miller Transit headed back to the bargaining table at 9 a.m. Monday.
“The committee will be meeting [Monday] morning,” Terry Tsuji, a member of the ATU Local 1587 bargaining unit, told CityNews.
The strike, which affects 50,000 commuters in York Region, entered its eighth week on Monday.
Striking members of ATU Local 1587 and Local 113 “occupied” several YRT buses on Monday morning. About 200 workers boarded the 99 northbound and southbound buses, preventing other passengers from boarding.
“We’re doing it in a peaceful fashion…for about two to three hours,” Tsuji said.
Talks between ATU Local 113 and Veolia, the company that runs VIVA buses, broke down on Saturday.
Negotiations ended abruptly after just a few hours and no new talks are scheduled.
At issue are benefits, including how much employees should pay for their own health care package.
“We’ve done everything we can to try to settle this. Veolia’s attempts to squeeze the health care of their employees’ families is as inexplicable as it is offensive,” ATU Local 113 president Bob Kinnear said.
ATU Local 1587 represents employees of Miller Transit and First Canada. Those companies are contracted to run YRT buses. These employees have been on strike since Oct. 24.
Besides healthcare, the main the main issues are the gap in wages and benefits between the York workers and their counterparts elsewhere in the Greater Toronto Area.
With files from Ashleigh Smollet
