Metro Transit strike on Thursday: Union
Posted Jan 31, 2012 11:20:19 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Prepare now for a transit strike.
The union representing 750 Metro Transit workers says talks have broken off, and the coundown is on for a work stoppage on Thursday.
Local Amalgamated Transit Union president Ken Wilson says Metro Transit tabled one more offer Sunday. The union countered on Monday. Wilson says the employer said today talks are done unless the union is willing to move off its offer.
“Absolutely not,” said Wilson. “As I said from the beginning, concessions are not on the table as far as we’re concerned. We’ve never striked in this union, in our history, for 104 years, over getting something. This is about protecting what we’ve always had.”
Metro Transit Director Eddie Robar says from his perspective, talks are not officially off, but he says there’s been no movement since the union responded to the city’s last offer with its own offer.
“That offer didn’t fulfill any of the objectives of the bargaining team, and we represented that that offer we had tabled the night before was our offer,” said Robar. “We would with them to move further closer to that offer.
Robar says the city is ready for the union to come back. The union says the city walked away.
Robar says the city took part timers and contracting out off the table. It sounds like the gaps are still over raises and a change in scheduling practices called ‘rostering’.
Unless something huge changes, transit service in HRM will stop at 12:01am Thursday February 2.
