The union representing striking City of Brampton workers says it will allow buses to cross the picket lines starting Friday night.
Fabio Gazzola, president of CUPE Local 831, told CityNews the decision to let the buses operate was made “as a sign of good faith” in the stalled labour dispute.
Around 1,200 full-time and temporary municipal workers, including transit, animal control, road maintenance and city hall services, went on strike at 1 a.m. Thursday after contract talks with the city failed to produce an agreement.
Picket lines went up at several locations including at the City’s two transit yards. While the strike doesn’t include bus drivers, they are being blocked from entering their transit yards by striking workers.
The result is over 100,000 people have been left stranded without transit.
“You guys want money but we want money too, we have to get to places and this is completely unreasonable,” said one frustrated transit rider at the Bramalea bus terminal.
Gazzola says he understands and sympathizes with the frustration being felt by transit riders.
“It’s been scaled appropriately to start. The intent is not to disrupt the city, it’s to get a deal done,” he tells CityNews.
The union has been working for close to nine months on a new contract, seeking pay increases and better health and benefits packages.
The City says its offer is fair — and final — noting it’s the same one that was accepted by Mississauga’s municipal workers.
Brampton mayor Patrick Brown said he was “deeply disappointed” by the disruption.
“This is unacceptable when CUPE was offered a fair, multi-year deal identical to the Mississauga agreement,” he wrote in a social media post. “Brampton residents deserve better, and we will pursue every possible avenue to restore services.”
Before the union said it would allow buses to run unobstructed, Brown threatened to take legal action to get the city moving again.
“They (bus drivers) are going to continue to go each day to try and attempt to go to work,” Brown told CityNews. “And frankly, if the City has to seek an injunction to stop this unfair labour practice, to make sure this critical service can be returned, we will do so.”
