Earlier this month, Local 987 of the Amalgamated Transit Union sent out a media release regarding contract negotiations for transit workers in Lethbridge.
The union represents both regular transit workers and Access-A-Ride workers. The Access-A-Ride programme provides accessible door-to-door transportation services for eligible riders.
Workers in the mainstream transit service ratified an agreement last year. Access-A-Ride workers, however, are still working off a collective agreement that expired at the end of 2024, so over 8 months ago.
In the media release, Travis Oberg, president of Local 987, said that these workers “are paid less than other Lethbridge transit workers while doing more difficult work. We won’t accept anything less than fairness for workers that make our city work for the elderly and vulnerable”.
In January 2022, for example, the starting pay rate for mainstream bus drivers was $28.66 an hour. Access-A-Ride drivers were making $27.68 for their starting rate in the same month.
Not only that, but it was not until January 2024 that raises for the Access-A-Ride drivers finally brought the starting rate up to that of the mainstream drivers.
Plus, take a look at these different pay raises for both groups of drivers:
| Mainstream | Access-A-Ride | |
|---|---|---|
| January 2020 | 1.50% | 1.50% |
| January 2021 | 1.50% | 0.00% |
| January 2022 | 2.00% | 0.00% |
The City of Lethbridge was giving mainstream drivers raises (small as they were) while they were freezing wages for Access-A-Ride drivers.
Same goes for dispatchers. As of January 2022, mainstream dispatchers had a starting rate of $37.35 an hour, while Access-A-Ride dispatchers were paid $28.81 an hour for a starting wage, nearly a $10 gap.
No wonder Oberg said that the bargaining team representing these workers will not accept anything less than the mainstream workers.
Local 987, in their release, called the 18 days of negotiations with the City of Lethbridge “exhausting” and said that the employer’s “unwillingness to withdraw concessionary proposals” has been “an obstacle” to negotiations.
Fed up with the stagnating bargaining process, Local 987 has filed for mediation.
How do I know they are fed up? Well, they framed mediation as “the first step towards a potential strike” rather than an expected part of the negotiating process.
These workers seem ready for a strike, if necessary, should mediation fail. That being said, they have not conducted a strike vote yet, so there has been no official strike mandate from the workers, at least not one that has been made public.
In Alberta, if contract talks break down, mediation must be tried before workers can go on strike or the employer can lock out workers.
There is no timeline for how long mediation must last, but once it has ended, workers must wait 14 days before they can hold a strike vote and employers must wait 14 days before they can lock out workers.
Their last contract was not ratified until 14 months after the previous one had expired.
