About 4000 students from the West Island, as well as schools off the island of Montreal will be denied school transportation on Monday morning due to a strike by their bus drivers.
The Trois-Lacs school board in Vaudreuil-Dorion and Lester-B.-Pearson school board in Dorval will be affected by the strike, which will continue as long as it takes to drive the point home, the drivers' union said.
The strike will not, however, cancel classes.
At the meeting, 78 per cent of the Lucien Bissonnette Bus workers who attended voted against the latest offers from their employer.
Salaries are at the center of the dispute, according to the Teamsters union that represents the drivers.
The strike had already been postponed earlier this month "to give the negotiations a last chance," said Stephane Lacroix, communications director for the Teamsters union.
However, the last meetings failed to resolve the impasse between the parties.
Strike avoided on the South Shore
The bus strike will not, as previously expected, affect two school boards on the South Shore -- 2500 students will be able to get to and from school because of new contract agreements.
Sogesco workers working for Autobus South Shore Division Sainte-Julie voted 100 percent in favor of a new employment contract.
The new three-year collective agreement includes wage increases of 7.5 per cent.
As for employees in the Longueuil division, 70 per cent of them have accepted a new five-year work contract that provides for a wage increase of 11.5 per cent.
The salaries of school bus drivers range from $ 20,000 to $ 25,000 a year, according to the union.
