Earlier today, I delivered a community petition signed with 2,000 names in support of transit workers on strike in the Sea-to-Sky region, to PWTransit (c/o Greg J.Nichols, VP), and BC Transit (c/o Errin Pinkerton, President & CEO), calling on them to “SIGN A FAIR DEAL!” with their employees, and end the ongoing labour dispute.
I delivered this petition on behalf of the 2,000 people who signed, most of whom are community members of Whistler, Squamish, Pemberton, Mount Currie and Lil’wat Nation. Despite being impacted by the lack of public transit during this strike, these community members have shown their unwavering support for their local transit workers in this labour dispute!
I started this online petition at change.org on January 30, the day after transit workers went on strike. I am a community member of Whistler, a year-round resident, a worker, a bus pass holder, and someone whose primary method of transportation is public transit. Like many workers in Whistler, I don’t have a car, and don’t drive; I take public transit to get to my two part-time jobs, to get groceries, to get to my doctor’s appointments, and to go out with friends. I am part of the tourism workforce of Whistler that welcomes on average 3,000,000 visitors each year, and a workforce that helps generate billions of dollars in tourism revenue annually to the province of British Columbia.
Despite also serving the communities in the Sea-to-Sky region, our local transit workers have been treated so disrespectfully by their employer, PWTransit (and by extension, BC Transit, who contracts out transit services to PWTransit) that they had no choice but to take legal strike action. These workers had been working without a contract with their employer for two years, as the employer had refused to sign a new contract that addressed and corrected the wage disparity of transit workers in the Sea-to-Sky earning on average $3 – $5 an hour LESS than transit workers in Vancouver or Victoria, despite living in a region of BC where the cost of living is HIGHER.
What made this strike, this time, different for me, and the reason I was motivated to ask the community to help me show support for the drivers, was that it was happening on the heels of the first year of a global pandemic.
Like many Canadians, I spent the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 at home, temporarily laid-off from my job, and anxiously watching the news for daily public health updates. Every day, as the first wave of the pandemic peaked, we saw stories on the news about overworked and exhausted health care workers, including nurses, support workers and housekeeping staff working in under-staffed seniors care homes, taking care of the most vulnerable people in our society.
Later in that first year of the pandemic, we also saw news stories about front-line workers in grocery stores who didn’t have access to paid sick days, despite serving the public every day through a global pandemic. These workers were scared of being exposed to or getting sick with COVID-19, not just for the same reasons as the rest of us, but because they could also lose two weeks of work (and two weeks of hourly wages), while isolating at home and recovering. For many of these workers who live paycheque-to-paycheque, losing two weeks of hourly wages (with no access to any paid sick days), could mean they would have to choose between buying groceries for their family, or paying their rent and electricity bill at the end of the month. These news stories came as a surprise to many Canadians, as many in our country believed that anyone who held full-time employment, would never have to make the choice of feeding their children, and risking having their electricity cut off due to late bill payment.
After these news stories in the first year of the pandemic, much noise was made by all levels of government and across society in Canada, to never again take for granted the work that “front-line workers” do. Canadians across the country said: never again, will we forget to appreciate the front-line workers that serve our communities…enough is enough!
A year later on January 29th, 2022, our local transit workers in Whistler, Squamish, Pemberton went on strike, and on that first day of the strike, as a community member, I started hearing about the reasons why they felt they had no choice but to go on strike. I was so frustrated to learn that they had been trying to negotiate a new contract with their employer (PWTransit), for the last TWO YEARS. In this time, which coincided with the global pandemic, they were asking only to be treated fairly by being paid a fair wage in a region where the cost of living is already so high, and knowing that due to rising inflation in Canada, that cost of living was going to increase even further.
In the last few weeks, Canadians have been bombarded with more news stories about rising inflation, and the worrying effects on the Canadian economy due to the conflict in Ukraine. Workers across Canada are being told in the coming year, we will be spending even more of our wages on groceries, gasoline, utilities and housing. Despite this knowledge: PWTransit (a private/for-profit company based in Alberta), is still refusing to sign fair deal with the Sea-to-Sky transit workers, who are STILL only asking to be paid a FAIR wage to match what transit workers in Vancouver and Victoria earn.
Once again: enough is enough!
As a community member, worker, and a bus rider in Whistler, I support our local transit workers, and all front-line workers. Along with the 2,000 community members that signed this petition, we call on PWTransit and BC Transit to sign a fair deal with the Sea-to-Sky transit workers, and start treating their employees with the dignity and respect that they deserve!
Online Petition Link:
