Frustrations mount as Transco public school bus drivers’ strike continues

Montreal families are getting frustrated as the Transco public school bus drivers’ strike continues.

The strike was called on October 31 by the CSN which represents some 350 school bus drivers and has affected 15,000 children in the city who attend schools run by the English Montreal and Lester B. Pearson School Boards, as well as the Marguerite-Bourgeoys and Montreal School Service Centres.

Quebec’s Labour Minister Jean Boulet saying last Friday that he’s putting pressure on both the union and Transco to resolve the issue adding that he’s prepared to appoint an arbitrator to put an end to the dispute. And on Monday, confirming to CityNews that another meeting between the two parties is expected sometime this week.

Christina D’Alesio, mother of three, says the entire situation has caused her family stress.

“It hasn’t been very easy. We don’t know when it’s ending also,” said D’Alesio.

“I thought it was going to last only a couple of weeks. Honestly, it was stressful when you’re like, ‘OK, so as of Monday, it’s a strike. What are we going to do? How are we going to figure this out?’ You know, we kind of had to readapt our daily routines and our reality. And now it’s just it’s been four months. It’s just it’s ongoing. We have no clue what’s happening.

“Because it’s every afternoon we have to kind of just stop everything you have a meeting too bad. You have to just leave the house, go get the kids and come back. So it’s like a good hour of our day that gets that’s impacted.”

The matter comes down to salary – with the union claiming that their drivers are underpaid. The Quebec government has already granted additional financial assistance to school bus companies to help them improve salaries.

However, the two parties do not agree on what portion of this additional aid from Quebec should be paid to drivers. 

“The union is asking right now is not viable for any transportation company in Montreal. So you just can’t operate with the numbers the union is putting on the table. So there’s no profits down the road. So it’s just if we want to be preserving school transportation on the island of Montreal, we need to to find a common ground and that common ground is just impossible to reach,” said Claude Breton, Transco Quebec.

CSN spokesperson and Transco bus driver Marcel Boudreau says that’s not the case, as he took part in a protest outside Transco’s offices in LaSalle.

“Two months ago, they came up with an offer, which was ridiculous. And the next week, instead of increasing it, because the union got a vote that it was no one hundred percent or close to it, they came the week after with lowering it of two per cent instead of increasing it,” said Boudreau.

Boudreau says drivers in Montreal have more challenging routes and compensation should be given fairly. As for bringing in an arbitrator to settle the dispute, Transco says yes whereas the union says there are already conciliators involved.

“We wouldn’t want to go onto an arbitrary in order to get the average because we’re not the average. We’re dealing with something else. We’re dealing with something completely different. We just want to get the fair share of what the government sent to us.”

According to Montreal parents united to end the Transco Bus Strike Facebook page – parents are planning a demonstration for March 11.

“We sympathize a lot with the parents the have to deal with the fact that we’re not there,” said Boudreau. “But believe me, if we’re not there it’s not because we don’t want to be there. We’re not there because it’s been long enough this situation has been going on.”

Sympathizing with the bus drivers, D’Alesio adds, “We really ask for them to work together to find a solution.”