Bulletin
CMBC and Translink – Protecting Jobs by Fighting for Robust and Affordable Public Transit
July 25, 2024
To: All MoveUP members at Coast Mountain Bus Company and Translink
Yesterday evening, our members working at Coast Mountain Bus Company and TransLink received an email from the leadership team addressing a funding shortfall that may have a severe impact on maintaining transit services beyond 2025.
We know this report will be concerning to all of you who work in public transit. Although your employer has told us their top priority is to protect and preserve jobs, meaning no layoffs and no salary reductions, we know that all of you deeply care about the state of our public transit system.
Our union, and the rest of the labour movement, also recognize the significant importance of public transit. It is not only a source of jobs, but it connects people and communities in an affordable way. The more robust and affordable public transit is, the better it is for our economy.
Our main priority is supporting our members in their workplaces, but that also means doing everything we can in our power to push all levels of government to properly fund transit to not only maintain existing service levels but to enhance them.
We need to connect more communities across BC. We need more buses and more services. We need better connections to rail and ferry services. We need to expand fare-free transit to as many groups as possible. And we need more people, like you, who work hard and dedicate themselves every day to ensuring these services are accessible, secure, and safe.
The BC labour movement and unions including ours, supported by the BC Federation of Labour, are committed to fighting for better for transit through campaigns like the Workers Deserve Better campaign.
In the weeks and months to come, we will be connecting with our affiliates to coordinate plans to push governments to make the much-needed investments into our transit system. Nothing should be off the table when it comes to supporting and properly funding our public transit system.
We will continue to communicate with all our members working in public transit, but also across our entire union who rely on affordable public transit, the actions that are required to for us to campaign to ensure public transit services are not jeopardized.
Our members will have a chance this fall in BC’s provincial election to ensure your vote goes to progressive candidates who have demonstrated a commitment to public services, including public transit, rather than those who seek to tear them down.
In the meantime, we encourage you to have conversations with colleagues, friends, and family members about why access to public transit is so critical for affordability, equity, and our economy, and prepare them to join the call to all levels of government for stable government funding for public transit.
In solidarity,
Annette Toth, President
Christy Slusarenko, Vice-President, Combined Units
Andrew Cheverie, Union Representative