Possible SkyTrain shutdown as early as Monday as TransLink transit strike ramps up

Possible SkyTrain shutdown as early as Monday as Metro Vancouver transit strike ramps up

SkyTrain Expo Line in New Westminster. (Elena_Alex_Ferns/Shutterstock)

The earliest possible date for a shutdown of SkyTrain and other public transit services — a significant expansion of the ongoing Metro Vancouver public transit strike — now appears to be Monday, January 29.

That is because the BC Labour Relations Board (BCLRB) has scheduled a hearing on January 29 with the Canadian Union of Public Employees 4500 (CUPE) to hear their complaints and application to legally picket outside SkyTrain facilities — not just TransLink’s Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) facilities.

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Daily Hive Urbanized has been able to confirm that the hearing is scheduled for January 29. CUPE 4500 has been attempting to schedule such a hearing with BCLRB since at least Sunday, January 21, but no such hearing has been scheduled until now, which has effectively delayed any potential systemwide shutdown of public transit services.

If the BCLRB sides with CUPE 4500, that will enable the union’s members — 180 bus operations supervisors — to set up picket lines outside SkyTrain stations, SkyTrain operations and maintenance centres, West Vancouver Blue Bus, West Coast Express commuter rail, and other services. This could potentially happen as early as the same day, Monday, just after the hearing concludes — and only if the hearing ends on the same day it starts.

“It’s an ally application. If we’re successful, then TransLink and SkyTrain would be acting as an ally to Coast Mountain…. We’re just going to allow that to go through the process and let the board determine that,” said Liam O’Neill with CUPE 4500 during a press conference yesterday.

The separate unions representing workers on other public transit services — including CUPE 7000 representing 1,000 workers on SkyTrain’s Expo and Millennium lines, BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) representing SkyTrain Canada Line workers, and Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) 134 — have all indicated their members will not cross CUPE 4500 picket lines outside the facilities. This would trigger the shutdown of public transit services beyond CMBC-operated buses and SeaBus.

In the meantime, public transit riders could see a temporary reprieve on Wednesday, January 24, when CUPE 4500 will allow their 180 CMBC supervisors to return to work. This would enable CMBC bus and SeaBus services to return to normal service starting Wednesday morning, following 48 hours of a shutdown. CUPE 4500 has stated that this reprieve could be short, with the union coming back soon with a new wave of highly disruptive job action measures.

Last week, CUPE 4500 said their job escalation of withdrawing all 180 CMBC supervisors would officially begin at 3 am Monday, January 22.

CMBC and CUPE 4500 have yet to schedule a return to the bargaining table since their failed negotiations this past weekend. Both sides staged competing press conferences yesterday to express their warring positions.

In addition to their disagreements with the employer on compensation, CUPE 4500 is also accusing TransLink of working with its operating entities, including all three SkyTrain lines, to reduce the impact on bus and SeaBus passengers during the full walkout of 180 CMBC supervisors.

During yesterday’s TransLink press conference, TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn suggested CUPE 4500 is taking issue with TransLink’s communications strategy to inform public transit riders of their alternative ways to get around.

“I think our position is that we absolutely have the right to inform our customers of options that they have. We have the ability to inform our customers that SkyTrain is available, [and] that other services are available in the event the buses are not available,” he said, before noting that BC Rapid Transit Company and ProTransBC have not increased SkyTrain service in response to the bus and SeaBus shutdown.

Labour policies forbid other public transit services, operated by workers with other unions, to step up and increase their capacity to fill the void left by a shutdown of a service.

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