Local transit workers voting whether to walk off the job

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If you ride the bus or SeaBus you might be in trouble, depending on the results of a vote by transit workers in Metro Vancouver today.

Thousands of unionized employees are set to decide if they want to go on strike. One of their issues is Coast Mountain’s plan to get rid of Sunday premiums.

Jordan Bateman with the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation says the company is doing the right thing, arguing the premiums are archaic and not the norm in the real world anymore. “In fact, it’s not really the norm even in public sector unions. I have never seen an organization outside of TransLink that has this pay bump for Sundays.”

Bateman explains it’s not even a case of reducing the premiums. He thinks they should be removed altogether. “I think in the olden days, it was harder to find people maybe on weekends, and so you pay a little bit extra in order to fill out the roster. But, in this day and age, the world’s changed, everything’s open 24/7 these days.”

Bateman says it doesn’t make sense to have to pay anyone extra to get them to work on a Sunday. The premium for bus drivers is 25 per cent.

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