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Metro Vancouver bus and SeaBus services set to resume after 48-hour strike

Bus and SeaBus services in Metro Vancouver are set to resume this morning after the end of a 48-hour strike by supervisors that ground Coast Mountain Bus Company routes to a standstill.

The union representing more than 180 transit supervisors has said they’ll be back at work by 3 a.m. and Coast Mountain says it expects services to be running before the morning rush hour.

A new statement from TransLink says regular bus and SeaBus service is expected to resume by 5:00 a.m., but there will be no NightBus service prior. It also noted that SkyTrain, WCE and HandyDART services are not affected and will continue operating as normal.

While it is back to work this morning, there’s no resolution in sight for the contract dispute behind the shutdown that the bus company says affected 300,000 riders each day. Talks between the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4500 and Coast Mountain broke down on Sunday.

The bus company says the union is demanding a 25 per cent pay rise and says that’s unreasonable, while the union says Coast Mountain tried to bully it in the negotiations.

No date has been set for the resumption of negotiations, but B.C.’s Labour Minister Harry Bains said Monday he was considering appointing a special mediator to find a way through the impasse.

The strike by the transit supervisors had halted Coast Mountain services because drivers who belong to a different union refused to cross picket lines.