Just in time to be a hassle this long weekend, Greyhound Canada suspended bus services Friday in four provinces due to a strike, forcing holiday travellers to seek backup plans.

Greyhound Canada suspended bus services in four provinces Friday due to a strike. Many holiday travellers have been caught in the middle.
(CBC)

Greyhound Canada is in a dispute with 1,150 drivers, mechanics, and ticket and baggage handlers represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union, with wages and working conditions the key areas of contention.

Service for passengers and parcels in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and most of British Columbia has been put on hold. A sister company, Island Coach Lines, will keep moving passengers on Vancouver Island.

The suspension of services was inconveniencing some travellers even before the Victoria Day holiday weekend began.

John Worsley and his wife were travelling from Vancouver to Cambridge, Ont., but found themselves stuck in Calgary.

"When we bought our tickets several weeks ago, they should have warned us that there was a strike [looming] in the future that could have prevented us from travelling," Worsley said. "Meanwhile, somehow our baggage managed to make it through."

Neil Bedard was on his way to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., from Pemberton, B.C., to visit his ailing mother when he got stranded in Calgary on Friday.

"Nobody told us there'd be a strike at midnight," he told CBC News, adding that Greyhound told passengers to find accommodations for the night even though the bus departed with everyone's luggage late Thursday.

Bedard's belongings are now in Winnipeg, and he'll fly there Saturday to pick them up, a trip that started out inexpensively, but will cost him $800 to $1,000 in the end.

"I'm a little bit frustrated, but what can you do?" he said. "I can't scream and rave to people who had nothing to do with it."

Blood services

The disruption is also affecting the distribution of blood for Canadian Blood Services.

Michael Hyduk, a spokesman for the blood service, said the dispute is affecting all Manitoba hospitals outside Winnipeg, as as well as hospitals in northwest Ontario.

"Hospitals are assisting themselves and assisting us," he told CBC News.

"In some instances, volunteers are bringing blood samples into Winnipeg for cross-match purposes, and returning to their hospital with the blood or blood product that is needed for the patient," he said.

Hyduk also said trucking companies and courier services have been hired to ensure delivery of blood products to all customers.

The strike has led to a surge in business for Alberta's Red Arrow bus line, which saw its phone bookings soar as travellers scrambled to get to the cities it services such as Fort McMurray, Red Deer and Calgary.

"Our call volumes have quadrupled in the last 48 hours. We're getting about 1,200 or 1,300 a day," said Joel Trudell, general manager in Edmonton.

While Greyhound said buses will continue running as scheduled in southern Ontario, including the Windsor-Ottawa corridor, the dispute has caused the cancellation of routes linking Winnipeg and Toronto, as well as Winnipeg and Ottawa.

The union gave Greyhound a 72-hour strike notice on Monday, and the suspension of passenger and parcel services began at midnight Friday in Western Canada. Passengers were dropped at the first major point on the route after the labour disruption began.

Reuse or refund tickets

Company officials advised passengers to explore other travel options, and said passengers who have already bought tickets to travel through or within the regions affected by the strike can reuse their tickets later or turn them in for refunds.

Last week, a majority of union members rejected a proposal from Greyhound.

The union wants wage hikes as well as improved working conditions. Workers say the conditions have deteriorated since the company became "Americanized," when Laidlaw International Inc., based in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, took over in 1997.

The contract between the company and union members expired at the end of December.

"We believe we've made every effort through the negotiations to come up with an agreement, and we're still committed to that," Stuart Kendrick, Greyhound Canada's vice-president of passenger services, told CBC News. "The lines of communications are open."

No further talks between the two sides are scheduled, he said.

Greyhound Canada has more than 400 buses and employs more than 2,500 people across the country, including more than 375 at its head office in Calgary.

With files from the Canadian Press