During the first month of the Kootenay Lake Ferry strike, the cook at Ladybug Coffee in Kootenay Bay couldn't get to work.
"My main cook lives in Balfour and couldn't get across on the ferry," said Ladybug owner Megan Rokeby-Thomas. "She commutes to work by walking on the ferry, but she wasn't allowed to walk on the ferry."
Only passengers meeting select criteria as essential workers were allowed on the ferry, and that did not include people going to their jobs. On Nov. 28, that rule changed, and the Ladybug's cook is back at work.
As the strike by workers on the Kootenay Lake ferry extends into its second month, East Shore residents are feeling its impacts on their businesses and in their families.
The strike initially cut the number of weekday sailings from 10 to three and allowed only essential travel, and cancelled weekend sailings altogether.
Eighty members of the B.C. General Employees Union are asking their employer, Western Pacific Marine, for wage increases, scheduling adjustments and extended benefits for auxiliary workers.
The strike has affected not only the customer base for East Shore businesses, but also their access to supplies and their own employees who live across the lake.
Business at Ladybug Coffee is down 75 per cent compared with previous Novembers, said Rokeby-Thomas.
Previously in the strike, except for emergencies, the only people allowed onto the three ferries per weekday were five categories of passengers: those who could show they had a medical appointment or other health-related requirement, people operating medical services on the East Shore, students crossing to attend classes, those students' parents or guardians for the purpose of pick-up or drop-off, and school teachers and administrators crossing to get to work.
On Nov. 28 the Labour Relations Board (LRB) added a new category. After people with the above-mentioned exemptions boarded, the ferry may fill up with anyone else waiting at the landing, including people who need to get to work. But there will still only be three sailings per weekday.
The new ruling also stipulated that Western Pacific Marine must run two ferries each day on weekends, to depart at the earliest and latest times on the winter schedule.
Rokeby-Thomas's business and her front porch overlook the ferry landing. She told the Nelson Star on Dec. 1 that all vehicles arriving at the Kootenay Bay ferry landing since Nov. 28 have been able to board.
The latest change allowing more cars on the ferry on a slightly expanded schedule has been "a good pressure release valve," according to Garry Jackman, who represents the East Shore on the Regional District of Central Kootenay board. He said many people have talked to him about the strike because of his position, but he emphasized that he spoke to the Nelson Star as a private citizen, not representing the RDCK.
Jackman said some East Shore families have been split by medical need. He cites an elderly man who is a patient in Nelson hospital whose family was not able to visit him without travelling the longer route through Creston and staying in a Nelson hotel.
Workers having to stay overnight on the other side of the lake away from home and their families to keep their jobs is a common story, said Jackman.
"There's also a lot of multi-generational families [who live on the East Shore] that have family in long-term care in Nelson," says Rokeby-Thomas.
The alternative route to Nelson from Kootenay Bay is the highway through Creston and over the Kootenay Pass, which can take 2.5 hours or more from Kootenay Bay depending on the high-altitude winter weather. The trip to Nelson via the ferry takes just over an hour.
During the strike and before the new ruling, ferry staff (management and union) sometimes asked passengers travelling for medical reasons to prove it by showing documentation. The LRB rules stated that they must "advise oncoming traffic about the limitations on boarding," but it does not specify what they should ask or say.
Rokeby-Thomas said the depth of the questioning was inconsistent and inappropriate. Questions about medical information in the ferry line-up created pushback in the community because such information can be sensitive and private.
"We've got people going for cancer treatment and things like that, and some haven't told their family," says Rokeby-Thomas.
Jackman called this medical information requirement "egregious" and a "serious invasion of privacy." A person going to a psychiatrist might not want a ferry worker to know about it, he said.
In an interview on Nov. 29, Western Pacific Marine general manager Odai Sirri told the Nelson Star that as of the Nov. 28 ruling, people who say they are essential will be asked why, and if the passenger says they have a medical appointment, they will be asked for the location of the appointment but will not be asked for proof.
The BCGEU has not responded to requests for comment on this issue or on any aspect of the strike.
Jackman said it has been hard for the public to get timely and accurate information about the strike, and he thinks the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure should be responsible for communications.
"They need to be the official voice, because it is their transportation corridor, period."
Commitments on both sides of the lake
The working lives of Don Horvath and his wife Cathy Fowler of Riondel illustrate the economic and personal complexities of the strike.
Horvath runs Plumb Local Plumbing and Construction, serving the East Shore south to Creston. He says even at the best of times he does not take contracts on the Balfour side of the lake because of the travel time. But the strike has still been expensive because he can't access his usual 40 per cent discount at a supply wholesaler in Castlegar. The time and cost of driving through Creston and over the pass cancels much of the benefit of the discount.
"That adds two-to-three hours, maybe four hours, depending on the weather," he says. Meanwhile, potential East Shore customers are reluctant to start new construction while the strike is on, because of potential problems transporting materials and tradespeople.
As a result of all these factors, Horvath has had to lay off his one full-time employee and he estimates his business is down 50 per cent.
Fowler is an educational assistant at Redfish School near Nelson, so she is considered essential and therefore can travel on the ferry. But her normal five-hour work day has turned into an 11.5-hour day because of the reduced ferry schedule. Normally, she would use the rest of her workday to run her Crawford Bay gallery, the Kootenay Lake Driftwood Company, where business is down by 60 per cent during the strike.
Profits earned by the gallery at a recent craft fair in Nelson were consumed by having to stay overnight in a hotel because of the reduced ferry schedule, Horvath says.
"A lot of people think, oh, it's not that big of a deal, but all of these things add up, and it's hitting my family quite hard."
If Horvath, Rokeby-Thomas, and Jackman favour one side in the strike they kept it to themselves during their interviews with the Nelson Star. They did not specifically criticize the company or the union.
"I think everybody actually, really does want the same thing," said Rokaby-Thomas. "We want a strong, stable ferry service that has great jobs for its team. Everybody is on that page. The problem is everyone has a different way they think we should get there."
