Transco school bus service resumes for Montreal students
Posted March 11, 2024 2:32 pm.
Last Updated March 11, 2024 2:47 pm.
School bus service resumed on Monday for thousands of Montreal students after a fourth-month strike by 350 Transco bus drivers.
Union members accepted a conciliator’s proposal for a settlement last week.
Most of the bus routes resumed and management had said on March 7 that, “school boards will advise parents if there are any lingering issues with certain routes.”
A 69.4 per cent majority of union members voted in favour of the proposed settlement, announced the union, which is part of the CSN-affiliated Fédération des employé(e)s des services publics, last Thursday.
The indefinite strike began on October 31.
Some 15,000 students with the English Montreal and Lester B. Pearson School Boards, Centres de services scolaires de Montréal and Marguerite-Bourgeoys, as well Collège Sainte-Anne were impacted.
According to the union federation, the six-year contract, retroactive to July 1, 2022, will increase the weekly salary from $634 to $907 on July 1, 2027.
Quebec’s Labour Minister Jean Boulet had appointed two conciliators since the beginning of the dispute. He met with both parties separately on February 23, to encourage them to reach a settlement. And then reminded them that he could appoint an arbitrator to settle this if they agreed. But the union refused.
In the end, it was the conciliator’s proposed settlement, submitted on March 6 and voted on by the union members on March 7, that put an end to the conflict.
