It’s a stalemate as both sides of the transit strike continue to butt heads.

On one side, Metro Transit is asking the union to take its final offer straight to the membership for a vote. And on the other, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 508 said they want to go back to the bargaining table to work out a deal.

“We’re 100 per cent behind our negotiating team,” said Mayor Peter Kelly. “We believe we had a strong proposal that we’re asking them to take back to their membership.”

There were two options in the final offer: one containing rostering ‘ which would prevent transit drivers from picking their own shifts ‘ and the other without, which was a big issue for the union. The dollar figure HRM is putting on rostering is $500,000 to $1 million.

When asked why not take it to a vote, Shane O’Leary, vice-president of Local 508, said they already did. “Because we’ve already brought their original proposal (to a vote) and we have a 98.4 per cent mandate to make the decision ourselves,” he said.

Ken Wilson, the local’s president, said it’s not about the wages, just the three big issues ‘ which are now off the table ‘ and the 70 concessions HRM won’t budge on. He’s prepared to give up some, but not all.

Wilson said it’s hard to predict the strike’s duration.

“That lasted five weeks and was in June. Gas wasn’t $1.30 a litre and we weren’t carrying 96,000 people,” he said. “I’m hoping it’s going to be short.”