Saskatoon Transit union rejects latest offer

Saskatoon Transit employees have turned down voting on the latest contract offer from the city.

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The workers have been without a collective bargaining agreement since 2012. The latest round of negotiations broke down last week as the city presented its final offer to the union.

Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 615 met Sunday for a secret ballot on whether or not they wanted to vote to accept the city's latest offer.

Local union president Jim Yakubowski said 92.4 per cent of members turned down that chance.

"That tells me definitively that it's falling short of their expectations," Yakubowski said.

Meanwhile, the city said the union's vote was unfortunate.

"This is extremely disappointing news," said Catherine Gryba, general manager of corporate performance, in a news release. "I've said it before, but in the current economic downturn, a 10per cent wage increase is certainly above what many workers would receive elsewhere in the marketplace."

Yakubowski said notice has been sent to the city that the union is willing to return to the bargaining table to resume negotiations.The city also said it is willing to return to talks.

Drivers will not be taking any sort of strike action until the union receives a response from the city.

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"What happens next will largely depend on what sort of response we get from the city, " said Yakubowski.

While the city and union seem to have made progress on where each side stands on wages, the outstanding issue continues to be the pension plan.