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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
School bus drivers may strike
WSD prepares for walkout expected as classes resume
The Winnipeg School Division could be hit by a strike by school bus drivers when classes resume Sept. 5.
The drivers voted 68 per cent against a tentative agreement the union and employer had reached after conciliation.
WSD school bus services are contracted out to First Student Canada, a private U.S.-based firm.
Earlier this summer, the drivers gave the United Food and Commercial Workers a 95 per cent strike vote, which could go into effect when the current deal expires Aug. 27.
UFCW Local 832 president Jeff Traeger said Tuesday the union is ready to go on strike as soon as the deal expires, and members would likely not be driving school buses when classes resume next month if they don't have a new contract.
"I'd anticipate, at that point, that is the will and desire of the members," he said.
The division said Tuesday it's hopeful the UFCW and First Student Canada can reach a deal.
"Parents will be kept up-to-date on the status of transportation services for the 2,200 students who are bused daily and who could be impacted by any disruption in the transportation service, via the divisional website" at www.wsd1.org, WSD communications officer Dale Burgos said.
Burgos said the division is "exploring alternatives to ensure minimal disruption to our transportation services," but the division wouldn't provide details yet.
While saying the union wouldn't bargain through the media, Traeger said the 68 full-time and 14 part-time drivers would take home less money under the company's offer -- First Student Canada wants to pay drivers by the route while the drivers want to be paid by the hour, he said.
Traeger would not say why drivers rejected the tentative deal that the union reached with the employer, but added: "It's a fairly rare occurrence."
Traeger said the strike would not only affect kids being bused to and from school -- many of them French-immersion students living more than 1.6 kilometres from their school -- but would also cancel busing for field trips and extracurricular activities, including high school football.
No city division has had a school bus strike in more than a decade, since UFCW drivers went on strike against the former Transcona-Springfield school division in 2001, Traeger said.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 15, 2012 B3
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