The City of Winnipeg and members of the Amalgamated Transit Union continue to be at an impasse after the city rejected the unions latest counter proposal.
According to the city the concessions the union is looking for would cost the city approximately $80.8 million over the life of the contract. The ask is apparently $68 million more than what the city had offered its transit employees in their ‘final’ offer rejected by the union last week.
According to the city they had offered wage increases starting in January 2020 of 2% per year until 2023. The union countered with 1.75 in 2019 retroactive to January, and 2% until 2022. The city says that the unions wage proposal would cost an additional $5 million over the length of the contract.
In addition to a percentage raise the ATU has asked for a $10 per hour raise for all mechanics. The city say that it would cost the city $9.6 million over the contract and would equate to a 29% wage increase for mechanics.
In an open letter on social media ATU President Aleem Chaudhary said “We are also concerned that the City continues to throw increasingly inflated and unsourced numbers around with reckless abandon, instead of actually resolving the toxic work environment perpetuated by Winnipeg Transit and the director, Greg Ewankiw.”
The union also asked the city for a guaranteed mandatory 5 minute minimum recovery time at the route designated terminals for bus operators. The city says that in order to accommodate that they would have to hire 41 additional drivers, 6 more maintenance / supervisors and add 32 buses to the fleet.
“The City has made it clear with their latest aggression that they would rather threaten workers and riders than fix the mess at Winnipeg Transit and work in good faith, sit down with the ATU, and solve these issues. As the City has repeatedly ignored concerns with scheduling, we are left to understand that the City simply doesn’t care about bus riders,” said Chaudhary.
The previous collective agreement has been officially terminated by the city and the ATU remains in a legal strike position.
The city says they expect the union to initiate strike action in the fall.
© News4.ca 2020
