As Fraser Valley bus strike enters week 7, union calls for negotiations

Over the last month, Jhanavi Sharma — an international student studying business at the University of Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C. — spent over $750 on transportation, mostly taxis and Ubers.

Before, she used to ride B.C. Transit buses to school and work from her home in Abbotsford, an expense that was covered by fees she already paid to her university, leaving her with very few out-of-pocket transit costs. 

But after transit drivers walked off the job March 20, half of Sharma's monthly paycheque is now going towards transit alone.

"At the end of the month, you are left with nothing because [it] is very expensive," she told CBC News. "Taking into consideration the inflation happening, school, it's expensive and you gotta do what you gotta do, right?"

Sharma says she's had to cut back on any extracurricular activities, and has found herself in the "awkward" situation of having to ask her work colleagues to drive her home from work at Abbotsford's High Street mall.

"Most of my friends live in the middle of the city, which is nowhere near UFV or High Street and all of them work at High Street," she said. "They have to do Uber both ways."

Sharma is among thousands of people in the Fraser Valley who have been left with precious few transportation options as the transit strike in the region stretches on for more than a month.

Bus drivers on picket lines say they're happy to come back to work, but their employer hasn't reached out to negotiate.

Sharma and the union have both called on the government to intervene to end the ongoing job action.

Workers under the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 561 umbrella are on the picket lines, leaving buses in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission, Agassiz, Harrison and Hope without drivers.

Currently, only essential HandyDart services are operating in the region.

B.C. Transit, a Crown corporation, contracts out public transit services to private company First Transit in the valley east of Vancouver.

"We are ready to bargain," said Elizabeth Roux, who has been a driver and trainer for 12 years, and is one of the strike organizers. "We are ready to sit down, but they need to be willing to sit down and talk to us, and at this point they're not."

The union has called for a 32 per cent wage increase to bring them in line with what they say is being paid in other parts of Metro Vancouver, humane scheduling practices and an employer-subsidized pension plan.