Contract talks between the London area's two largest school boards and local bus companies could resume as soon as Friday.
The Southwestern Ontario Student Transportation Services (STS), the transportation consortium for the Thames Valley District and London District Catholic school boards, and the Southwestern Ontario School Bus Operators have not met since Monday.
Les Cross, a spokesperson for the group of seven bus companies, told Blackburn News on Thursday they are currently working with the STS to set up a time to get back to the bargaining table.
The stalled negotiations are the result of differing opinions on the process for reaching a deal, according to Cross. Bus operators want to begin mediated talks, but with the understanding that they can bring in an arbitrator if necessary. The STS is firmly against going to binding arbitration.
"The only thing that is stopping us right now is the agreed upon process to get to an eventual resolution," said Cross. "We realize we have six, maybe 12 months of negotiations to go through with mediation and we can get to it. It has been done at other school boards around us, it has been done through this process at other school boards around us. Why they won't agree to that, I am not sure. It just seems to be a piece of control they don't want to give up."
The bus companies are asking for a funding increase that would allow them to offer competitive wages to drivers that are comparable to operators in other nearby regions. Currently, drivers within the Southwestern Ontario School Bus Operators Association make $14 an hour.
"It can't be a minimum wage job. I think everyone acknowledges that. So trying to decide and get to what is a fair wage is in question," said Cross. "At the closest boards, which would be Waterloo, Windsor, Niagara, we are seeing wages at $17 an hour and higher."
However, John Jevnikar, chair of the London District Catholic School Board, and Matthew Reid, chair of the Thames Valley District School Board, recently sent a joint letter to Minister of Education Lisa Thompson stating that "some of the school bus companies’ requests are simply not reasonable."
"Despite considerable financial restrictions, we have made several fair and reasonable offers, including a 10% increase to the current $50-million budget. This offer was 2.5 times greater than the funding increase provided by the Ministry of Education to local school boards," Jevnikar and Reid said in the letter. "Any additional increase to school board transportation budgets would severely and negatively impact the quality of education of students by drawing resources away from other needed programs."
The letter goes on to say the budget allocated for transportation does not allow the board to remediate the effects of the minimum wage legislation introduced by the previous government.
If the labour dispute isn't resolved in the next 12 days, the area's 50,000 students who rely on the bus to get to school will have to find their own way when classes begin September 4.
Earlier this week, the school boards issued a joint statement to parents advising them to consider making alternate transportation arrangements ahead of the start of the school year, should a deal not be reached.
"I am hoping we will get a resolution. I am hoping our drivers will be back to school and we will keep all these children safe. That is our job and we hope that we will be doing it September 4," said Cross.
Full school bus service in the London region has never been cancelled as a result of a contract dispute.
