The school bus strike in Montreal is in week 10, and it's wearing parents down
Gina Granter's mornings are beyond busy.
She has two teenagers in high school and two young children attending the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School in Montreal's Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie borough. She says the school bus strike in Montreal that's been dragging on for more than 10 weeks has "really disrupted" her quality of life and her kids' as well.
Drivers with Autobus Transco have been on an unlimited strike since Oct. 31.
Instead of a short walk to a school bus stop near her home, Granter has had to take public transit with her 10-year-old daughter who's in Grade 5 and her five-year-old daughter who's in kindergarten.
"We had just gotten her into a routine of getting her on that school bus in the morning, and then it was taken away," Granter said.
The bus service provider says more than 15,000 students on the island of Montreal are affected by the strike. Those students are with the English Montreal School Board (EMSB), the Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB), the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal, the Centre de services scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys and Collège Sainte-Anne.
The major sticking point in the negotiations is salary — and there appears to be no end in sight.
Granter is quick to point out that she supports the drivers' push for better pay, but she would welcome an end to the labour dispute.
"It also cuts my day because I have a fifth grader who normally gets bused home and lets herself in the house if I'm not home from work and now she needs to be picked up," she said.
"My days have just been truncated."
School boards and service centres have announced a plan to issue reimbursements to families. Both the EMSB and the LBPSB will give families $7 per child for every strike day, including each school day since Oct. 31.
Marcel Boudreau, a bus driver for Transco, says the company is refusing to give employees 'their fair share' of what they receive from the Quebec government. (Rowan Kennedy/CBC)
Union demands 'unreasonable and unrealistic,' bus company says
With students and parents caught in the middle, Autobus Transco and the bus drivers' union, the Syndicat des travailleuses et travailleurs de Transco–CSN (STTT–CSN) are publicly pointing the finger at each other.
In 2022, the Quebec government struck a deal with school bus operators in the province. That same year, the province unveiled an education investment plan that included $31.2 million to help attract and retain bus drivers.
As far as the bus drivers' union is concerned, very little of the latest money from the government has trickled down to its members.
"The owners seem to not want to give us our fair share of what they received from the government," said Marcel Boudreau, a spokesperson for the STTT-CSN.
"We're hoping to make a decent living."
In a statement on Thursday, Transco said the STTT-CSN was misrepresenting facts regarding the money it received from the government, adding that the union's demands are "unreasonable and unrealistic."
The company says meeting those demands would make it impossible to function.
"Transco drivers have always been the highest paid on the island of Montreal and will continue to be well above their peers working at competitors with the offer we made during bargaining," the statement reads.
Transco has suggested using a third-party arbitrator. Boudreau says it's not a good idea.
Granter, the mother of four, says she's trying to stay positive. She listens to audiobooks while walking alone on her way to school to pick up her children or on her way back home after the drop-off.
But the morning and afternoon commutes are taking a toll.
"Because there are so many people without the school bus, we're clogging up public transit now," she said. "The Papineau bus is completely jammed and sometimes we can't even get on it."
