TransLink bus and SeaBus services could temporarily restart Wednesday

TransLink's R4 41st Avenue RapidBus in Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Is this a case of hope for the best, but plan for the worst?

Canadian Union of Public Employees 4500 (CUPE) appears to be following through with its original stated plan that the current shutdown of TransLink’s bus and SeaBus services across Metro Vancouver will last for 48 hours.

This means about 200 bus routes across the region and the SeaBus ferries between Lonsdale and downtown Vancouver could restart services on the morning of Wednesday, January 24.

But the restart of bus and SeaBus services could be temporary — a mere reprieve — if TransLink’s Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) and CUPE 4500 are unable to reach an agreement before another round of job escalation.

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If services restart on Wednesday morning, the 180 bus operations supervisors currently on strike will revert to the “baseline” job action disruption of an overtime ban, which first began on January 6.

“We will continue with our overtime ban [on Wednesday], and then if we don’t have a deal, then we’ll have to plan our next escalation. Obviously, there’s going to be an escalation, which will be more than the current one. I’m sure that we will be announcing something at some point,” said Liam O’Neill, a spokesperson for CUPE 4500, during a press conference early Monday afternoon.

At the time of writing, TransLink has also indicated that CMBC bus and SeaBus services are “expected” to resume on Wednesday.

Both sides have yet to schedule a date to resume bargaining, after talks failed in the early morning hours of Monday, which officially triggered the start of the walkout at 3 am.

Furthermore, at the time of writing, the services on SkyTrain Expo Line, SkyTrain Millennium Line, SkyTrain Canada Line, West Coast Express commuter rail, West Vancouver Blue Bus, and other services are not impacted, following earlier threats of a cross-union shutdown.

This cross-union job action in solidarity is only possible through a chain of cascading events, starting with the BC Labour Relations Board (BCLRB) scheduling a hearing with CUPE 4500 to hear their complaints and application, with the board then siding with CUPE 4500. CUPE 4500 members would then have to picket outside the separate facilities of Canada Line, West Coast Express, Blue Bus, and/or other services, which would then shut down these other services.

However, as of early Monday afternoon, BCLRB has yet to schedule a hearing, which may not happen until after Wednesday at the earliest.

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