Thunder Bay Transit workers are frustrated after going more than a year without a contract, and that‘s part of the reason they voted 96.6 per cent on Sunday in favour of a strike, their union president said Monday.

Charlie Brown, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 966, said the City of Thunder Bay asked the more than 130 workers to make several concessions.

“They‘ve lumped a whole bunch of concessions from their side on the table,‘‘ said Brown. “The big ones are a reduction in a portion of our benefit plan, which is not acceptable . . . they tried this during the last contract and it didn‘t work.

“The city is also looking for an unlimited number of part-timers which we think will be an erosion of the full-time work force and detrimental to us down the line.”

Brown said the city wants mechanics to go from a five-day work week to seven, “with very little compensation.”

“In 16 meetings and 14 months we haven‘t had any real negotiations,‘‘ he said.

“We‘ve settled nothing, except three or four minor items which were typos in the contract . . . they don‘t affect anything.

“There‘s no wages on the table, we haven‘t even talked any money at all,” Brown said, adding that he believes Thunder Bay bus drivers are near the bottom of the pay scale in Canada.

“We‘re going to have to look at wages sometime . . . we brought numerous proposals to the table and the corporation has agreed to absolutely nothing,” Brown said.

Brown said the union is waiting to receive a report from the Ministry of Labour, but the workers could strike near the middle of September if an agreement isn‘t reached.

In the last round of negotiations between the city and the union, workers were setting up the picket line when “the city manager came down, and we spent the whole afternoon getting the contract done at the last possible second,” Brown recalled.

“Our members know ridership is going up, they know they‘ve been doing their jobs properly. We‘re saving the city money and when we get to the table – I guess the expectation for any working person is if you do a good job over a period of time you‘ll get a little more at the end of that,” Brown said.

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Thunder Bay Transit employees will soon find themselves in a legal strike position now that contract negotiations with the city have stalled.

Charlie Brown, president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 966, said the union filed for a no-board report after talks broke down Thursday morning.

The union will be legally entitled to take some sort of job action – for example, a strike or work-to-rule campaign – 17 days after the province receives the report. The city would be in a legal position to lock out the workers.

“We‘re not talking money at all at this point in time,” he said in an interview. “We‘re looking at a number of concessions that the city‘s asking our bargaining group for. We‘re looking at a reduction in certain areas of our benefit plan, which we find unacceptable. They‘re looking to increase to an unlimited number of part-time workforce for drivers, which we think is going to erode the full-time workforce.”

Thursday morning‘s negotiation meeting lasted about 10 minutes, Brown said.

“We‘ve been in negotiations for almost a year-and-a-half now,” he said. “We‘ve been at the table 16 times, and what was presented on the table from both parties on the first day is still on the table today.”

A strike vote is to be held Aug. 29, Brown said.

Assuming nothing is settled before the union is in a legal strike position, Brown said the union does have a plan.

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