Talks have broken up and the transit union is preparing for a strike.

Shane O’Leary with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 508 said the union’s bargaining team walked away because the city wouldn’t come to an agreement.

It happened at 11 a.m.

“The negotiations are over at this point,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned it’s a strike at the end of service day tomorrow.”

O’Leary said the union is now busy getting that message out to the workers.

In a release issued just before 1 p.m., HRM says a new proposal they offered on Monday no longer included any contracting out language or discussion of part-time transit operators, both sticking points forthe union. The release also notes that drivers would be the highest paid in Atlantic Canada.

“There is no need for a strike,” Mayor Peter Kelly says in the release. “Let’s continue
to negotiate and get a deal done.”

The union has set Thursday at 12:01 a.m. as the time workers would hit the picket lines.