SkyTrain's Canada Line workers secure new five-year contract | Daily Hive

SkyTrain Canada Line's Capstan Station. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Unionized workers for SkyTrain’s Canada Line have officially ratified a new contract, locking in enhanced compensation and significant improvements to their benefits package.

British Columbia General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) and employer ProTrans BC reached a new five-year collective agreement early this month, which was subsequently approved by the union’s members on January 14, 2025.

The Canada Line is privately operated and maintained by ProTrans BC, a subsidiary of AtkinsRealis (previously known as SNC Lavalin). While the Canada Line is officially branded as a part of TransLink’s SkyTrain metro network, the operating entity is separate from TransLink subsidiary BC Rapid Transit Company (BCRTC), which operates and maintains SkyTrain’s Expo Line and Millennium Line, and the West Coast Express commuter rail.

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Canada Line workers have been without a contract for the past year; the previous contract began on January 1, 2020 and ended on December 31, 2023.

The new five-year contract will be applied retroactively, starting on January 1, 2024 and ending on December 31, 2028.

“BCGEU members working on the Canada Line negotiated an excellent new collective agreement with significant wage increases that will help them keep up with the cost of living,” Paul Finch, president of BCGEU, told Daily Hive Urbanized upon inquiry.

“The bargaining committee worked through some tough negotiations to win this deal, and members are excited about the result — it provides the improvements they need to continue delivering safe and dependable public transit to commuters.”

A Canada Line train inside the operations and maintenance centre near Bridgeport Station in Richmond. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Finch highlights that the new agreement achieved wage-levelling with BCRTC’s SkyTrain workers.

During the first year of the contract, which is retroactive, all unionized staff will see a 6.75% wage increase. For the second year that is now underway, members will receive a 3% increase.

For the contract’s third year, members will see a 2.5% wage increase, plus an additional amount for non-skilled workers.

For each of the fourth and fifth years of this contract, members will see a 2.5% wage increase per year, plus any additional percentage increase received by BCRTC to level with SkyTrain workers on the Expo and Millennium lines.

These wages are in addition to the expansion of shift premium hours, with the afternoon shift premium spanning from 5 pm to midnight and the night shift premium spanning from midnight to 7 am. Shift premiums for workers are set at $2.00 for afternoon shifts and $3.25 for evening shifts in 2024, with incremental growth reaching $2.75 and $4.25, respectively, by 2028.

Canada Line workers also won numerous significant increases to their benefits, such as $5,000 for dental per year (up from $2,000), $4,000 orthodontics for dependants (up from $1,500), $600 for vision care every two years (up from $300), $600 for paramedical per year (up from $400), $1,000 for massage per year (up from $400), $1,500 for physiotherapy (up from $400), and $1,500 for psychologists (up from $1,000 per year). Various other improvements include expanded footwear allowances, seven days of sick leave that replace “sick hours,” and one new paid personal leave day.

BCGEU represents about 180 members working on the Canada Line. Their positions include Canada Line attendants, control room operators, vehicle technicians, guideway technicians, electronics technicians, facility services technicians, and various administrative roles.

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Boxing Day 2024 crowds at SkyTrain Canada Line’s Templeton Station. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

In June 2023, CUPE 7000 secured a five-year contract for over 1,000 workers on the Expo and Millennium lines. The contract between September 1, 2023, and August 31, 2028, provides these other workers with general wage increases of 6.75%, plus 2% to 3% depending on the Consumer Price Index average, and 2.5% for the remaining three years.

BCRTC’s unionized workers also received major premium increases over the life of their contract, including improvements to health benefits and the sick plan, introduction of contracting-in language, and improvements to working conditions, such as limits to forced overtime provisions.

Almost exactly one year ago, in early 2024, a widespread solidarity shutdown of TransLink’s services was narrowly averted, stemming from a strike of 180 supervisors who work for TransLink subsidiary Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) and are represented by CUPE 4500. Reached through mediation, their three-year contract, applied retroactively, will end December 31, 2025.

Unifor Local 111 and Unifor Local 2200 represent the vast majority of unionized CMBC workers — 4,000 bus drivers and 1,100 workers in the trades, support, and SeaBus operations, respectively. Their last agreement was hammered out in April 2023, with the agreement spanning three years from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2026.

In September 2024, a strike of HandyDART workers ended, after 600 members represented by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724 reached a deal with the employer Transdev, which privately operates the TransLink service under contract.

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