HandyDART suspends strike for now
During a strike, most of its services would pause, except for critical medical appointments.
HandyDART remains in service — for now — while its union members vote on the latest offer from Transdev, its employer.
Its union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, had first intended to strike on Monday, which would have paused most of the transit services’ thousands of door-to-door trips in the region — except for those who depend on HandyDART for cancer, renal and MS appointments.
While HandyDART workers suspended job action this weekend to vote, they might still serve a 72-hour strike notice to Transdev if they vote against the company’s final offer.
Local news that matters to you
No one covers the Tri-Cities like we do. But we need your help to keep our community journalism sustainable.
People who aren’t able to use standard public transit without assistance rely on HandyDART to get to and from medical appointments, dialysis, day programs, work, education and other activities.
A discontinuation of this service would be a “big inconvenience” for users, said Beth McKellar, the Chair for the HandyDART Riders’ Alliance and someone who has used the service for 24 years.
“They’ll have to miss out on living their life, of being independent with the DART to be able to go shopping. Even go sit in the park for an hour or so — go visit a friend.”
She encourages fellow HandyDART users to ask for help if they need it, saying that she thinks a strike would be short.
But many HandyDART are in support of the workers, she added.
“Because of the treatment these employees get from this for-profit contractor,” McKellar said. “These drivers have mortgages. They have families.”
Joe McCann, the union’s president, told the Dispatch last week that they are “trying to catch up” their workers in Metro Vancouver to counterparts in the Fraser Valley. He said that drivers in Metro Vancouver are making $31.11 per hour compared to the drivers who make $36.09 in the Fraser Valley.
Both McKellar and McCann said HandyDART should come in-house under TransLink, to create a sustainable service that can accommodate Metro Vancouver’s growing population.
“The service needs to be overhauled and done the right way. They will not listen to the frontline people,” McKellar said.
This has been echoed by a number of municipalities. Burnaby, North Vancouver, Langley City, Langley Township and Maple Ridge have all passed resolutions where they’ve called for HandyDART to be brought in-house under TransLink, according to the union.
Kevin Quinn, the CEO of TransLink, wrote in the service’s performance review last year that HandyDART needs further investment to keep up with growing demand. Over 90,000 new residents moved to Metro Vancouver in 2023.
HandyDART completed nearly 1.2 million trips in 2023 — 18 per cent of those were either in the Tri-Cities, Burnaby or New Westminster.
Transdev, a French multinational corporation, was contracted by TransLink in 2018 to run the HandyDART service in Metro Vancouver. The Dispatch reached out to Transdev but did not hear back by deadline.
