VANCOUVER—Metro Vancouver mayors are calling for an end to job action and urging both sides to get back to the bargaining table as a partial transit workers’ strike enters its fourth day.

“It is disappointing to hear Unifor leadership suggest that bus expansion be scaled back ... Scaling back transit expansion in this region is completely off the table,” New Westminster Mayor and Mayors’ Council chair Jonathan Coté said in a statement.

“With North American-leading ridership growth, a climate emergency and growing road congestion, now is not the time to slow down transit improvements. Cutting the funding used to buy additional buses and hire more bus drivers will also do nothing to improve the working conditions of our valuable transit operators,” Coté added.

He also warned that funding cuts would mean that overcrowding would increase.

Bus drivers, SeaBus operators and maintenance workers for Coast Mountain Bus Company began partial job action last Friday in a labour dispute over wages and recovery time for bus drivers.

Representatives for Unifor, the union representing 5,000 bus and SeaBus workers, walked away from the bargaining table last Thursday, saying the company has not gone far enough to meet their demands on compensation and working conditions.

The union has suggested scaling back transit expansion projects in order to pay for future wage increases.

Unifor also said it wouldn’t come back to the bargaining table with CMBC until the company reconsiders its stance on those issues.

In the meantime, bus drivers are not wearing uniforms and maintenance and SeaBus workers are refusing overtime.

On Monday, TransLink cancelled SeaBus sailings for the fourth day in a row due to job action that prevents workers on the ferry service from doing overtime.

Evening commutes to and from the North Shore will be impacted Monday, as six sailings between 4:10 and 7:45 p.m. will be cancelled.

The overtime ban on SeaBus is the reason the ferry service has been more immediately impacted by the job action than regular buses. Less availability of maintenance workers could take some regular buses off the road, but it’s not yet clear what the impacts may be.

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SkyTrain and the Canada Line are not impacted by the job action.

In July, Metro Vancouver mayors had voted in support of a $3.12 billion SkyTrain line from Surrey to Langley, despite funding gaps that will only allow the expansion of four new stations in Surrey ending in Fleetwood.

The Mayors’ Council called on the provincial and federal governments to commit additional funding so the line can be extended all the way to Langley as part of a regionwide transit expansion.

Joanna Chiu is a senior journalist for Star Vancouver covering both Canada-China relations and current affairs on the West Coast. Follow her on Twitter: @joannachiu

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