Negotiations fail to resolve Sea to Sky transit strike

Transit users in the Sea to Sky region will remain without bus service after an all-day bargaining session on Wednesday failed to end a 14-week strike.

On Wednesday night, both sides of the fight — Pacific Western Transportation and Unifor Local 114 — blamed the other for the impasse.

More than 80 members of Unifor Local 114 have been on strike since Jan. 29, suspending B.C. Transit services in Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton.

The company operates the service under contract with B.C. Transit and does not pay its workers the same amount earned by TransLink's Coast Mountain Bus Company workers.

In a statement, PWT said it had made two offers to the union. One they said met the union's demands on pension and benefits, with guaranteed wage increases in the first two years of a five-year contract, with the final three years of wage increases being determined through binding arbitration.

The second option was wage increases over five years and converting the pension plan to defined benefits, which the company said the union wanted.

Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor western regional director, said the company had rejected any union proposal to create pay parity between the workers and Coast Mountain workers.

The difference in wages between the two groups of drivers is about $3 an hour.

“It was deeply frustrating that after nearly 15 weeks without transit service in the region, the employer won't entertain any timeline or solution for wage parity over the life of this agreement,” said McGarrigle.

No further negotiations have been scheduled.