TRI-BOARD, EMPLOYEES SQUARE OFF AHEAD OF STRIKE APRIL 3 DEADLINE

Tri-Board Student Transportation Services says a possible strike by seven transportation employees will have no effect on operations and school buses will continue to run on schedule.

Seven employees represented by CUPE Local 1749 threatened strike action earlier this week for April 3 if their contract demands were not met.

In a statement, Tri-Board stated any “strike will have no impact on the safe operations of school buses since Tri-Board does not employ drivers, monitors, or mechanics. Tri-Board's Safety Officer and Transportation Manager are unaffected by the strike.”

Tri-Board assured parents concerns will continue to be addressed by the company.

The company said, “CUPE is claiming that Tri-Board's Transportation Planners are the lowest paid of similar routing workers in the province, yet they are seeking parity with jobs with significantly greater responsibilities and cherry-picked comparator rates. Tri-Board is offering a 3.7% salary increase per year for four years, the same as what 55,000 Education Workers fought for in November 2022. This is what was agreed to at the three school boards we serve.”

Transportation planners, meanwhile, say they do not accept being paid 19 per cent less than their coworkers across Ontario and are determined to bargain a fair wage increase.

Six of the workers are transportation planners who say they are substantially underpaid compared to the school transportation planners employed by other transportation consortia in Ontario, and this is the one outstanding issue in the labour dispute.

“Right now, Tri-Board workers are the lowest-paid of similar transportation planners across the province, earning 19 per cent below the average,” said Liz James, CUPE Local 1479 President.

Tri-Board transportation planners design over 620 school bus routes in the Frontenac, Lennox & Addington, Prince Edward, and Hastings counties of eastern Ontario.

“Our transportation planners organize safe, reliable, and efficient transportation to and from school for more than 30,000 students, over 600 vehicles, covering a geographical area of over 16,000 square kilometres,” said James. “Their work is valuable and yet they are being paid 19 per cent less than the going rate for it.”

Tri-Board is a transportation consortium that is jointly controlled by Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board (ALCDSB), Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board (HPEDSB) and Limestone District School Board (LDSB).

The union argued the “cost to settle this dispute and avoid a disruptive strike is a tiny fraction of each of the three school boards' budgets: less than $20,000 – or only about $6,500 per school board.”

The union said Tri-Board managers filed for conciliation after only two days of bargaining last July. Three days of negotiations, with a conciliation officer appointed by the Ontario Ministry of Labour acting as an intermediary, took place January and February 2023. A fourth conciliation meeting between the two parties on March 17 did not result in an agreement.