After weeks of being on strike, and as the school year winds down, about 20 drivers from the ABC division of Autobus Yamaska in Bedford, which provides transportation for schools in the western sector of the Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB), reached an agreement with their employer, private transportation company Sogesco.
At the start of the 2022-2023 school year, CIDI reported that schools in the western sector of the ETSB may face a shortage in bus drivers as a result of ongoing negotiations between the Ministry of Education and the transportation companies regarding funding. A temporary agreement was set in place between the ETSB and the bus drivers, who remained committed to bringing students to school until negotiations between their employer and the government came to a close. At the beginning of May however, a number of drivers from the ABC division of Autobus Yamaska, a subsidiary of Sogesco, decided to go on strike after working for almost the entire school year without a new employment contract. This affected various bus routes in Brome-Missisquoi and forced some parents to find other ways to get their children to school.
Marc-André Gauthier, Director of Communications for Teamsters Canada - the union that represents the drivers in question - described the weeks-long strike as the longest school transportation strike to take place in the province, but that it was necessary in order to provide drivers with a quality of life. The new agreement between the drivers and Sogesco will provide them with a salary increase, amongst other improvements to their working conditions, and will see them back to work for the 2023-2024 school year. Gauthier explained that while Sogesco and the ABC division of Autobus Yamaska have reached an agreement for the time being, there are still ongoing negotiations with Sogesco in other parts of the province and the situation has raised questions about the industry that will be significant to address in future discussions.
“Their employer had been refusing to negotiate for the better part of the year. So at some point when you want to improve your conditions, you form a negotiations committee but every time you meet with them they basically tell you ‘look, we can’t give you more money;’ it’s really frustrating,” said Gauthier. “(…) They decided to give themselves what they call a ‘strike mandate’ and they decided to go for it. For them it was the only way to show their employer that they’re serious in their request.”
After finally securing an agreement between the ABC division of Autobus Yamaska and Sogesco last week - other agreements have also been secured on the South Shore of Montreal - Gauthier said that “they are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.” Drivers with the ABC division of Autobus Yamaska were back to work on Monday and are providing transportation to students for this last week of school.
“They got a salary increase, now they will be making $26 an hour. It might seem like a lot, but don’t forget that they don’t really work full-time. (…) Of course, there are clauses that are set in place for future indexation if there is inflation and what not. Also, their general conditions really improved. Everything regarding their lunches if they are on the road and if they need to buy a meal because they are on a school trip, and everything regarding maintenance of the bus or inspections,” he explained. “I’d say, generally speaking, this contract improve things at least for the next couple of years.”
“Our school year ends this week, but what we are most satisfied with is that we don’t have any concerns for the re-entry in September. The good news, or the consolidation of all of this, is that we will be compensating those families whose children were not transported. We will be compensating them for the expense or dislocation of having to get their kids to school. Very soon we will be paying those families for the transportation that they had to arrange or do themselves,” noted Michael Murray, chairperson for the ETSB.
While transportation companies like Sogesco are privately owned, they are funded by public money, according to Gauthier. The provincial government provides every school board and school service centre with funding for school transportation and then they negotiate a contract with the transportation companies. He said that Sogesco and other transportation companies are arguing that they have not been receiving enough funding over the last couple of years to meet their employees’ requests.
“The average salary in that region (Brome-Missisquoi) was $22,000 a year for those bus drivers. I think that we can agree that in 2023 it’s not enough money to get by even if you keep things at the bare minimum. It’s not enough, especially if you compare their salaries to other bus drivers that work for cities or even those big buses that you see on the highway. They make three to four times less money and they’re responsible for the safety of our children,” Gauthier highlighted. “We always found that quite ridiculous. It raises a good question for the future: how come this whole industry can still operate on cheap labour basically? But perhaps it’s a debate for the future.”
“The bus contractors have their own negotiation platform with the government, which is basically the treasury board, to determine how much they are paid. It’s a complex issue. Every route has different distances to travel, fuel costs go up and down, we’ve been encountering inflation, and then there is the complication that the Minister of Transport has announced that from now forward all buses purchased must be new electric buses. This means that bus transporters are facing huge costs to install high capacity rapid charging stations,” explained Murray. “(…) They’re facing a whole new financial picture.”
Despite the hesitance on part of Sogesco over the last year to sit down and negotiate with its employees, Gauthier said that he has seen a “shift in attitude” over the last couple of days. He hopes that the situation will continue to move in a positive direction as negotiations with Sogesco remain ongoing in other regions in Quebec, including Outaouais.
“We’ve been receiving a lot of support, comments and parents from students. Of course they’ve been affected and it wasn’t easy for anybody, but at least they understood the fight that these drivers are fighting. They’re a big part of the community and they deserve more. At least, because they’ve stood their ground, they deserve some respect. Basically the strike has been about respect."
CIDI reached out to Sogesco for comment, but they declined as a result of ongoing negotiations with other unions.
Listen to the full interview below: