Talks between the City of Moncton and the union representing Codiac Transpo workers have broken down again, city officials announced on Friday with three police officers on hand.

After three days of negotiations, an impasse was reached in the nearly three-month-old contract dispute, said city manager Jacques Dubé.

Both sides have agreed to a pay raise that would bring the bus drivers' salaries to $51,000 a year by 2017, up from $44,000, he said.

But they can't agree on terms in 2018, said Dubé.

"What the union has put on the table, with the wage bomb that they've dropped in 2018, would bring them to about $60,000 a year," he said.

Union wants wage parity

Still, George Turple, the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1290, contends the wage increase is justified because it's comparable to what other city employees get paid to do similar work.

"We've given in on what the city has wanted in everything that they had wanted — in changes of efficiencies, overtime and savings," he said.

Mayor George LeBlanc believes $51,000 a year is more reasonable and that it's close to what drivers in Fredericton and Saint John are paid.

"What I can say is that we are trying to move forward from the hand that we've been dealt over past agreements," he said. "We are trying to limit the increase to what we consider to be a reasonable increase."

Turple disagrees and is calling on the city to now accept binding arbitration.

The city manager, however, argues the union should accept the five-year deal and wait to see what happens in 2018.

The greater Moncton area has been without public transit service since June 27 when the city locked out the 80 workers, including bus drivers, service workers and mechanics.

City and union officials headed back to the negotiating table earlier this week in the hope of ending the dispute, which has left students, seniors and low-income residents scrambling to find alternate transportation.

The city had made changes to its bargaining position in advance of the latest round of negotiations. Among the adjustments, the city had proposed a longer term to the contract.

City officials had said they were limited in what they could provide in terms of annual percentage increases, but had some flexibility on the length of time it could provide an increase.

Mediated talks had broken off on July 10 and the city had refused to enter into binding arbitration.

Wages have been a sticking point in the dispute. The city's previous 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.

By comparison, 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 workers have been without a contract since 2010.

Codiac Transpo services Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe.