Both sides in the Guelph Transit lockout have a message for riders: Don’t expect to be riding buses anytime soon.
“From all indications, it looks like we’re going to be out for a while,” Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1189 president Andrew Cleary said Wednesday.
Cleary and more than 200 other transit workers were locked out by the city Sunday night, after they rejected the city’s latest contract offer.
They had been operating without a contract since July 2013.
Guelph CAO Ann Pappert says residents who normally use public transit should be planning alternatives to get them to at least the midway point of August.
No further talks have been scheduled between the two sides, and Cleary says he doesn’t expect the city to change its stance until after October’s municipal election.
For now, city officials say they want the workers to either vote again on the last contract offer or spell out their demands in more concrete terms.
Cleary says the union has already made its demands clear.
