Moncton bike shops benefiting from transit lockout
Rick Snyder, co-owner of Mike's Bike Shop on Rue Champlain, said his sales have jumped 10 per cent since the buses stopped running June 27.
"They want fast ones — you know they're used to the bus getting them where they need to go fairly quickly — so they don't want big heavy slow bikes, they [want to] zip along and get to work quick,” Snyder said.
Snyder said used bikes have also been popular since the lockout, and so have bike repairs. He has noticed many dusty old bikes brought in for a second life to get stranded riders to work.
On June 26, Moncton locked out Amalgamated Transit Union 1290 bus drivers, service workers and mechanics, after an escalation of a series of service reductions in the contract dispute.
The city had been cutting routes and cancelling service because it says it doesn't have the staff to cover shifts.The city's last offer to the transit workers contained a 13.75 per cent wage increase over five years.
That deal would have been retroactive to July 2010 and it contained improved health and dental benefits. The city’s offer would have brought a bus driver's annual salary to $51,000 in 2015.
The union was asking for a 23 per cent wage increase over five years. That would have brought a Codiac Transpo bus driver's annual salary to $55,120 in 2015, according to the city.
The union and city met with a mediator July 9.
