The New Westminster school district is warning parents of expected cancellations in bus service as some transit workers head for the picket lines later this week.
Unifor, the union representing bus and SeaBus operators, is heading for a total shutdown of bus services between Wednesday and Friday this week unless the dispute is resolved.
“If your student/s depend upon public transportation to get to and from school, you are invited to prepare to make alternate arrangements,” Superintendent Karim Hachlaf said in an email to parents.
“Please be assured that students will not be penalized who, due to the transit shutdown, are late, miss tests, or are unable to find transport to and from school.”
Parents are being asked to keep track of the transit strike in the news, follow TransLink service alerts on the transit authority’s website and to watch the school district website for school-related announcements.
Negotiations between Unifor and TransLink devolved over the past several weeks, but the union has rolled out its job actions slowly, largely through days in which operators were directed to deny all overtime.
That has generally been expected to affect up to 10 per cent of service on those days, but the upcoming action will be the most drastic yet. The union announced last week they would be hitting the picket lines and shutting down bus service for three full days.
Unifor will also be holding a rally outside TransLink offices in New Westminster on Thursday.
Unifor is just one of several unions representing transit workers in the region. But while the strike won’t affect SkyTrain operations, the union representing Millennium and Expo line workers, CUPE, gained its own overwhelming strike mandate recently.
