School bus drivers affiliated with the CSN believe they are being “cheated” by the transporters and refuse to pay them a “reasonable salary”.
In an interview with LCN, the president of the school transport sector at the CSN, Josée Dubé, declared that his members were fed up with the attitude of the carriers who are unable to offer drivers “better conditions and a reasonable percentage” of the increase.
Mr. Dubé pointed out that in 2022, carriers got “a big improvement on their contracts”. Employees demanding a “reasonable percentage” of the increase would not have a satisfactory increase in salary.
School bus drivers across Quebec have been campaigning for months for better pay and better working conditions.
In Estrie, Sogesco recently locked out its employees.
Ghost
Josée Dubé regrets the government’s lack of action.
“We understand that the Minister [Bernard Drainville] it’s a ghost, she said. It doesn’t show at all. On the other hand, he should do it. […] We don’t have problems with school transport we have finished. Something unhealthy is going on. We have Transco, Transdev, Sogesco. These are large boxes that manage columns of numbers. What matters to them is the profit margin.”
“The salaries of bus drivers must be increased,” she said. It is enough that big companies are making profits and the government is doing nothing. Even the [centres de services scolaires] say they can’t do anything, since they have a contract with the carrier. It’s not true that they can’t do anything.”
Josée Dubé insisted that drivers would not quit before they were paid better.
“We stop when we have achieved a good solution and we continue when we know the carriers are taking advantage of it,” she said.