Fraser Valley public transit strike officially ends after 124 days

No. 66 Fraser Valley Express. (BC Transit)

After 124 days, the strike of BC Transit’s bus drivers in the Fraser Valley has officially come to an end.

Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 561 announced Friday evening its workers have ratified a mediated settlement with First Transit, which is BC Transit’s private contractor for operating and maintaining the Fraser Valley regional public transit system.

The union represents a total of 213 workers who operate BC Transit services in the communities of Abbotsford, Agassiz-Harrison, Chilliwack, Hope, and Mission.

Workers first walked off the job on March 20, 2023.

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This was one of the longest public transit strikes in the history of British Columbia. If the strike continued for another two weeks, it would have exceeded the all-time record of 136 days — last year’s strike of BC Transit workers in the Sea to Sky corridor (Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton), which started on January 29, 2022 and ended on June 14, 2022.

The union states picket lines are being taken down, and the process to restart services will now begin. But it will likely take at least several days to resume services after such a prolonged downtown in operations. It took more than a week for services to resume after last year’s Sea to Sky corridor transit strike came to an end.

Both sides in the Fraser Valley dispute have agreed to a six-year contract, which ends on March 31, 2026. According to the union, the new agreement narrows the wage gap with other public transit workers in the Lower Mainland — specifically TransLink workers — and introduces a pension plan that begins in Spring 2024.

The agreement was only reached after the provincial government appointed veteran mediator Vince Ready as a Special Mediator on June 8. The strike finally saw light at the end of the tunnel this past Wednesday when union leadership accepted Ready’s recommendations and prepared to meet the membership to seek ratification.

“Our members needed a lift, and with this agreement they got one,” said CUPE 561 president Randy Kootte.

“Special Mediator Vince Ready’s recommendations were a fair compromise, providing us with a foundation for future rounds of bargaining. By ratifying this memorandum of settlement, the members agree that this contract is a good start in addressing their concerns.”

One public transit service reaching Metro Vancouver was also affected by the Fraser Valley strike, specifically BC Transit’s No. 66 Fraser Valley Express, which runs along Highway 1 between SkyTrain Lougheed Town Centre Station in Burnaby and downtown Chilliwack, with stops along the way at TransLink’s Carvolth bus exchange in Langley Township, McCallum and Highstreet in Abbotsford, and Vedder and Lickman in Chilliwack.

At the time of writing, BC Transit has yet to issue a statement on its next steps following the end to the strike.

In April 2023, without devolving into labour action, the workers of TransLink’s bus and SeaBus services under Unifor reached a new three-year deal, providing bus drivers with up to a 12.5% wage increase. Later this month, CUPE members working for TransLink’s SkyTrain services on the Expo and Millennium lines are also expected to consider a negotiated deal.

SkyTrain Canada Line workers under BC Government and Service Employees’ Union saw a new contract in February 2021.

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