Thousands of people with disabilities could end up stranded in the coming weeks across Metro Vancouver as strike action by ATU Local 1724 ramps up.
The union represents HandyDart drivers, maintenance workers, road supervisors, trainers and office workers in Metro Vancouver and has been on strike since July 3 when an overwhelming majority of members voted in favour of taking action, said union president Joe McCann.
This does not impact HandyDart services outside of Metro Vancouver.
HandyDart offers a “paratransit” service for people who can’t take conventional public transit without assistance due to physical, sensory or cognitive disabilities. Drivers offers passengers door-to-door service and are trained to work with people with a range of disabilities and mobility aides, McCann said. Passengers can book a ride up to a week in advance and pay the same fare as conventional public transit users. They will often ride the bus with several other passengers.
Leo Yu, a HandyDart bus operator and member of Local 1724, says working conditions have been deteriorating over the past decade. More recently, “completely chaotic” workdays have been negatively impacting drivers, dispatchers, passengers and their caregivers, he says.
A lot of regular bus services around the province are contracted out to private companies too. Translink runs their buses (Coast Mountain Bus Company) and BC Transit runs the buses in Victoria but all the other BC Transit branded buses are either run by municipalities (eg Nanaimo), regional districts (eg Cowichan Valley), or are privately run (eg First Transit in the Fraser Valley). Of course drivers in privately run areas usually get shafted, see the First Transit strike last year