Business groups urge swift action to end TransLink strike uncertainty

R2 RapidBus serving the North Shore. (TransLink)

With hundreds of thousands of people relying on public transit to get around Metro Vancouver, the possibility of a major disruption in services due to a strike of 180 supervisors of TransLink’s bus and SeaBus services could have “significant ramifications on our local economy.”

“The importance of our regional public transportation system cannot be overstated. For many small businesses, such a significant transit disruption could make it difficult to keep the doors open if employees are unable to make it to and from work,” said Bridgitte Anderson, president and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, in a statement.

“Given the potential consequences and the impasse at the bargaining table, we urge the provincial government to step in and provide the support needed to come to a fair resolution while avoiding impacts to transit users.”

The shutdown of major public transit services would not only reduce business and economic activity, but it would also particularly impact frontline workers and others working in the service industry.

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At the time of writing, bargaining between TransLink’s Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 4500 is in its final hours, after negotiations resumed on Saturday with veteran mediator Vince Ready.

If an agreement that works for both sides is not reached by 3 am on Monday, January 22, CUPE 4500 will ask the 180 bus operations supervisors to walk off the job. This will trigger a full shutdown of TransLink’s bus and SeaBus services for at least 48 hours — until at least Wednesday morning.

As of the time of writing, a decision on the full shutdown of bus and SeaBus services may not come until 3 am Monday.

For at least Monday, the escalation of job action will not impact services on SkyTrain Expo Line, SkyTrain Millennium Line, SkyTrain Canada Line, West Coast Express commuter rail, and HandyDART, according to a TransLink bulletin at 5 pm Sunday, in response to some union claims earlier in the day that job action could spread across separate unions and also result in a shutdown of SkyTrain service.

Every day, on average, roughly one million boardings are recorded on TransLink’s public transit system across Metro Vancouver.

Out of these volumes, 62% use the buses, 26% use the combined SkyTrain Expo and Millennium lines, 10% use SkyTrain Canada Line, 1% use SeaBus, and a fraction of a percentage use West Coast Express.

“The Surrey Board of Trade calls for a swift resolution to this job action which could compromise workers, businesses, and our economy,” said Anita Huberman, president and CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade.

“In the absence of robust transportation networks facilitating the seamless commute of our workforce to their places of employment, the efficacy of economic productivity experiences a decline.”

Huberman suggests that if a strike occurs, the provincial government should intervene to “ensure swift resolution and to ensure that TransLink services are prioritized as critical services that need to continue so that our economy isn’t halted.”

In Fall 2019, a full walkout of thousands of CMBC bus drivers, SeaBus workers, and other workers represented by Unifor was averted overnight, after a deal was reached just after midnight. Just days later, TransLink also narrowly avoided a full shutdown of services on SkyTrain’s Expo and Millennium lines, when a deal was reached with CUPE 7000 after 4 am, with the last minute agreement impacting some of that morning’s SkyTrain services.

The last time the provincial government intervened in a Metro Vancouver public transit strike was in 2001, when it passed legislation forcing thousands of bus and SeaBus workers — represented by Unifor — to go back to work after a three-month shutdown of services. As a show of customer appreciation, following the strike and upon the restart of services, TransLink provided three consecutive days of free public transit.

Over the past two decades, since the disruptive 2001 strike, Metro Vancouver residents have become much more dependent on public transit to get around the region, with the modal share exponentially growing to over 15% today (but over 20% just before the pandemic), which is comparable to the public transit modal shares of Greater Toronto and Greater Montreal.

In real numbers, TransLink’s annual ridership has grown from just over 200 million in the early 2000s to a record high of 451 million in pre-pandemic 2019, with post-pandemic recovery totalling 325 million in 2022.

As of late 2023, TransLink ridership has recovered to over 90% of pre-pandemic volumes, with the strongest recovery experienced in Surrey and other areas in the South of Fraser sub-region. To date, Metro Vancouver has experienced some of the strongest post-pandemic public transit recoveries amongst major systems in Canada and the United States.

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