By Andrew Mitchell
Greyhound drivers in the Amalgamated Transit Union scraped together enough votes on Saturday morning, May 26, to accept a new deal offered by the company and put an end to an eight-day strike.
The motion was passed by just 18 votes; 51 per cent of drivers and mechanics voted in favour.
Buses were back on the road within a few hours as 1,150 Greyhound employees in Western Canada returned to work, although it took a few days to normalize schedules. Greyhound offered riders discounts of up to 25 per cent while things were getting back to normal.
The union demands were never made public, although the terms of the settlement will be posted on the union website once both sides sign the contract. At root were claims of deteriorating work conditions and a loss of job security since the company was acquired by Laidlaw International a decade ago.
Whistler employees that use Greyhound to commute switched to car pooling and other available services, and no serious disruptions were reported locally as a result of the strike. Whistler Transit did receive a few inquiries about the possibility of resuming the Squamish-Whistler commuter service, which will start up again in the fall and could run year-round after that point.
