About 300 unionized Transit Windsor workers are expected to walk-off the job next week to back contract demands.
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 616 has issued a strike notice for Monday February 5 at 12:01 a.m.
According to the union, contract talks are at an impasse after the union and city failed to reach a tentative agreement over the weekend.
The two sides met on Friday and Saturday with a federal mediator.
In a release, the union says "over several months of collective bargaining, the employer’s team has stalled, come to the table unprepared and/or with no authority to make decisions, and have ultimately wasted taxpayers’ money."
The union goes on to say, "the employer has made several creative attempts to erode the rights of these transit workers who are entitled to federally mandated 10 paid sick days - and they want to offset these days by reducing wages."
ATU International Vice President Manny Sforza says talks resume on Wednesday.
"We did make a request to the federal mediator that he elevates this to his boss and that they be in attendance to try and facilitate a deal with both sides," says Sforza. "That's how bad things are at the bargaining table."
He says transit workers want to continue to serve the travelling public but says the service from Transit Windsor has been mediocre for the last few months.
"They deserve better," he says. "The taxpayers, the traveling public, the citizens of Windsor deserve better. Transit Windsor is in complete disarray. You got a transit manager that can barely manage that. That is the lead negotiator at the bargaining table. I think it's time to send the decision makers to the bargaining table so we can finally get a deal."
Sforza says the union will work with the city right until the strike deadline but says at this point, he's not very optimistic.
"We got a lead negotiator on the other side that seems to be more focused on personal feelings towards some of the executive boards and there's no place for that at the bargaining table, there certainly isn't," says Sforza.
The city issued a statement after it received the notice and says transit riders should prepare for alternate transportation arrangements ahead of the potential strike date.
The city's acting commissioner of infrastructure services Mark Winterton says the city remains optimistic that talks planned for this Wednesday can keep the buses running.
This is the second time this month the union has issued its strike notice.
The first notice was rescinded and at that time, the union said all options remain open.
ATU local 616 represents drivers and mechanics.
The workers contract expired on September 30, 2023.
The Transit Windsor bus station in Windsor, Ont., on Wednesday, April 10, 2013. (Chris Campbell / CTV Windsor)