Frustrated Winnipeg School Division bus drivers strike on first day of classes

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This article was published 08/09/2020 (2021 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Busing for more than 2,000 Winnipeg students stalled on the first day of class after drivers for the city’s largest school division took strike action Tuesday.

Rather than loading up eager but anxious youngsters clad in non-medical masks for their first day of school, drivers with the Winnipeg School Division were preparing to walk a picket line outside the bus depot.

“Our members that are school drivers are very frustrated. They would much rather be doing their usual tasks, which is taking the kids to and from school,” said Bea Bruske, secretary-treasurer with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832. The local represents about 90 drivers working for WSD who transport approximately 2,300 students to and from schools in the division.

“Our members that are school drivers are very frustrated. They would much rather be doing their usual tasks, which is taking the kids two and from school.”–Bea Bruske, UFCW

The drivers’ collective bargaining agreement expired in June 2019 and in March, the union voted unanimously to strike, Bruske said, though additional bargaining took place during the summer. The salary schedule in the last agreement lists the starting wage as $24.59 an hour, topping out at $25.66 after three years.

Bruske said the latest offer from the division follows the Public Services Sustainability Act, or Bill 28, which was passed by the Progressive Conservative government in 2017 but never proclaimed. It limits public-sector employers to freeze wage increases for two years, increase them 0.75 per cent in the third year and one per cent in the fourth.

In June, Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench struck down the bill and ruled it violated the constitutional rights of unionized public-sector workers by eliminating their right to collective bargaining. The provincial government has appealed the ruling.

“The Winnipeg School Division continues to utilize Bill 28 as a reason why they can’t provide a reasonable offer to our members,” Bruske said.

“It’s a very minimal wage offer. These drivers have a very significant responsibility at the best of times, driving school buses full of kids in traffic, in all kinds of weather, getting them safely to and from school.

“Now, of course, with COVID, there’s additional responsibilities.”

Bruske said the strike will continue until the two parties reach a tentative agreement, the government legislates drivers back to work or if both agree to have an arbitrator settle outstanding issues.

“We don’t like being in a situation where we have to withdraw services in order to get a fair deal for workers… this is not something we do lightly,” Bruske said. “We would like to see any kind of movement at this point.”

“We don’t like being in a situation where we have to withdraw services in order to get a fair deal for workers… this is not something we do lightly.” –Bea Bruske, UFCW

The division is preparing for a drawn-out labour dispute. Senior information officer Radean Carter said before-and-after school programs are going online, students requiring transportation for special-language education can enrol at schools closer to home and the division will provide distance learning for students who cannot attend because of the strike.

“There’s no way that any of us can guess how long it will take,” Carter said. “Like any negotiation, both sides have to be willing to meet and be open to resolve the issues.

“Wages appear to be the main concern, and our division is offering as much as it can afford because being fiscally responsible is a key priority for the division, at any time and, perhaps, now even more than ever because of the added costs we have related to COVID,” she said.

Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen said he hopes a resolution to the dispute can be found “quickly.” He would not say whether Bill 28 was preventing a settlement.

“We won’t negotiate from the minister’s table or from a podium or in the public,” he told reporters Tuesday.

Pressed further, Goertzen said it is the government’s “expectation, at all times, that tax dollars be used appropriately.”

“These are particularly unique times financially, obviously, around Canada and around the world,” he said.

— With files from Larry Kusch

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca