The negotiating team for the Amalgamated Transit Union has offered the City of Winnipeg a deal where its workers would take a smaller wage increase in exchange for concessions on scheduling.

The new offer is being given to the city at the same time as 92.56 per cent of the 1,400 Winnipeg Transit workers rejected the city's latest contract proposal.

The ATU has offered to take a wage increase of 1.75 per cent in the first year of the deal, followed by two per cent in each of the next three years.

That is a decrease from the 2.75 per cent per year the union had been asking for in the contract.

ATU president Aleem Chaudhary says the union's biggest concern is over scheduling processes, not money.

"We've been told by our membership, over and over and over again, it is the working conditions; they have to be met and they have to get respect from management. That is something that has been lacking for many, many years. It is time; they have made it a priority," Chaudhary said.

Among the concessions the union wants to see from the city are better relief points and shelters when drivers take over shifts from each other, a five-minute recovery time scheduled in for each driver at the end of each bus run and a citizen representative on Transit's internal scheduling committee.

ATU president Aleem Chaudhary says scheduling issues led to stressed-out drivers and can be partially solved by the city agreeing to the union's conditions. (John Einarson CBC)

Chaudhary says a five-minute recovery time would allow drivers to get out of their buses to stretch and get a break from the stress of driving in traffic and trying to meet schedule times at each stop.

The city's latest offer would have seen the workers get a two per cent increase in pay in each of four years, starting in 2020.

Workers have rejected three previous offers from the city.

The two sides have been negotiating for months in a dispute where the transit workers have been without a contract and have a strike mandate and the city has not ruled out locking out the workers.

The ATU president maintains his union wants to avoid a strike if possible.

"I can guarantee right now we are not looking at a strike. We are not considering it at this point right now. But all our options are open," Chaudhary said.

A spokesperson for the City of Winnipeg said in an email it is disappointed ATU membership rejected what it described as the city's "final offer."

The city said it will review the union's counter-offer and will not provide any further comment until that is done.

The two sides have traded shots several times since the contract expired in January, with union offering free bus rides to passengers and the city stopping the practice of allowing operators to request shift trades or vacation switches for the remainder of the year.

Approximately 170,000 people take a bus in Winnipeg every day. A strike by Transit workers in 1976 lasted six weeks and ended after the provincial government passed legislation forcing the drivers and other staff back to work.