Christian Gammon-Roy
Tribune
After roughly three months off the job, Alouette Bus Lines school bus drivers represented by the United Steelworkers Union (USW) have reached an agreement with the company on a new contract, getting back behind the wheel as of Monday, April 27. The drivers went on strike in late February, seeking higher pay. At the time, they were receiving a base salary of $18.11 per hour, and USW was demanding an increase to $21.10, with subsequent yearly increases. While the current contract still falls short of that number, at $20.65 at the day of signing, the union is pleased that some reasonable gains were made. However, according to Mike Scott, USW staff representative, “this is not the end, it is only the beginning,” as he vows that USW will continue putting pressure on the government to make the provincial benchmark of $24 a mandatory minimum, rather than a suggestion for companies to consider.
“$20 is the retro pay, $20.65 is where they’re at now. As of September 1, they’ll be at $21.10, and as of September 2027, it’ll be $21.35. We squeezed out a couple more cents out of them,” describes Scott, who sat in on the negotiations. According to him, the contract was accepted in part due to “the scab work”, with the Nipissing Parry Sound Student Transportation Services (NPSSTS) giving away the strikers’ bus routes to whoever would take them, “instead of coming to the table or help the company pay more. They simply refused to talk to us, and in fact they started hurting us.” Scott believes that the scab workers undermined the union’s efforts, eating away at their leverage as Alouette drivers who were not on the picket decided to cross it and work despite efforts to get them better wages.
While he says they felt pressed into accepting a contract before their routes were all taken over, Scott is still pleased that gains were made. “We ended up going up $3.24 over the entirety of the collective agreement, which is very good,” he says, adding that it’s at least a liveable wage compared to what they were earning before. He adds that some members wanted $24 or $25, referencing their desire to be at the benchmark, or make similar pay to the Sudbury drivers also under USW who recently got just over $25 per hour. While Scott understands their point, and agrees that they deserve that much, the union still cautioned the membership that it would take some time to realistically get to that point. “We knew that Alouette wasn’t just going to shell out that money and operate at a loss, that’s not what companies do. They need to be properly funded by the consortium, i.e. the government,” he explains.
