As of Saturday, Jan. 29 transit operators with Unifor Local 114 have been on strike in British Columbia’s Sea to Sky region, which includes the communities of Whistler, Squamish, and Pemberton Valley. The strike notice went out on Jan. 21, with 80 workers taking job action as of 5 a.m. Saturday. Unifor has said that the employers—Whistler Transit Ltd. and Diversified Transit—who are contracting workers under the provincial transport authority B.C. Transit have not met requests for better wages, benefits, and job security.
Western regional director of Unifor, Gavin McGarrigle, said that workers in the region want to receive the same wages that workers are already getting in Victoria and Vancouver. “What we’ve seen over the years is the housing has gone so far out of control, and the costs so far out of control, that workers’ wages simply haven’t kept up,” he said. “[The] Whistler area [is] a playground for the rich. But the working people who serve the whole community can’t afford to live there.”
HandyDART services—supplied for people with physical, sensory or cognitive disabilities who require assistance when using public transit—will still be in operation in the area as an essential service. All other transit options will no longer be in operation. B.C Transit has not provided any timeline for coming to an agreement. In a statement, they said, “The labour dispute is between B.C. Transit’s contractors—Whistler Transit Ltd. and Diversified Transit—and their unionized employees, B.C. Transit is closely monitoring the situation and hopes the parties will find a resolution soon.”
McGarrigle has said that B.C. Transit should “wake up” and provide the benefits the workers are asking for. “There’s only one or two things that have happened here,” he said. “B.C. Transit either hasn’t provided enough funding to the contractor to settle for a contract, or the contractor is trying to nickel and dime the workers and take a slice of the profits.”
This strike is another example of workers across the country taking job action to defend wages and working conditions in the face of the greed and profiteering of the bosses. With rising inflation workers are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. These are issues the entire working class faces. The entire labour movement needs to stand firm in the fight for fair wages and support the striking transit workers!
