Striking Metro Transit union to vote on latest HRM offer

The Amalgamated Transit Union local 508 confirmed Thursday the membership will vote Friday on the latest offer from Halifax Regional Municipality to potentiallyend the three-week old Metro Transit strike.

The vote will take place at the Halifax Forum between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The city came forward withwhat Mayor Peter Kelly called its"final" offerThursday afternoon.

The cityasked the union leadership to allow members a vote without any changes to the terms or further negotiation.

Council discussed the issue at a closed-door meeting Thursday.

"We want to find a way to get the operation back, so we have to find a way to break the ice and this hopefully will break that ice," said Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly.

"We'll be OK with this offer and that's why we have taken time to review it with council and council has agreed these terms are liveable, but there is no more on the table."

Terms of the offer were not released.

More than 750 employees of the bus companywalked off the job Feb 2.

They want to maintain control over their schedules and the citywants to be able to set the schedules.

About55,000 people use the service daily.