It’s day seven of the transit strike in Kelowna and it doesn’t seem like there’s an end in sight.
Members of Local 1722 of the Amalgamated Transit Union are out picketing again on Wednesday, after a pair of rallies at City Hall and Premier Christy Clark’s office on Tuesday.
While nothing has really changed on the negotiation front, there was a pretty major development on Tuesday afternoon.
“(First Canada) has completely terminated our benefits as a pressure tactic,” Union president Scott Lovell told KelownaNow. “They’ve also started legal action to try and bleed us dry in defending ourselves.”
The absence of benefits is manageable for some people over a short term period of time, but for some members of Local 1722, living without benefits isn’t realistic.
“We have people on disability that have been cut off from their benefits,” says Lovell.
First Canada will carry over the benefits until the union returns to work and those benefits will double up once that happens until the lost time is made up, but there is no solution for those union members that rely heavily on their benefits.
Upon immediate request for a comment, First Canada could not be reached at this time.
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