THUNDER BAY -- The city’s specialized transit service will operate as normal until at least Wednesday.
Officials with the City of Thunder Bay issued a media release Saturday morning saying the union representing the operators of the Lift+ Specialized Transit had extended a strike deadline two days amidst ongoing negotiations.
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 966 president Sheila Kivisto is cautiously optimistic the impasse will be resolved by the deadline.
Kivisto said she was told the city’s negotiating team has to receive guidance from council before going forward with talks.
“There are bigger issues than what we can do and now this is what we have to wait for,” she said Saturday afternoon.
On Friday the union, which represents the nine full-time and 11 part-time operators, issued formal notice of a strike deadline effective at 12:01 a.m. Monday morning. That deadline has been moved back 48 hours.
The city has operated the accessible transit service, which was formerly known as HAGI Transit, since the beginning of this year. There are about 1,000 registered residents who utilize the service.
Brad Loroff, manager of city transit, said the extension of the strike deadline is a sign of progress.
"We're pleased that talks have brought us to the point where the union agreed to move the strike deadline to Wednesday," he said. "Our talks are continuing."
While Kivisto acknowledged a strike may have an impact on the rest of the city’s transit operations, she doesn't anticipate that service being stopped.
“The conventional operators aren’t on strike and they’ll be attending work. We recognize it would be a strike line and we’d be continuing with the service,” she said.
“It could potentially be disrupted but it will still be out there.”
Earlier this year the operators of the city's regular transit service threatened to take job action but a deal was reached in the days leading up to a scheduled strike.
