Dorothy Rouch relies on the HandyDART bus service to take her to the Ridge Meadows Seniors Centre five days a week. She has lunch, plays bingo, and creates crafts while having a laugh with friends.

Tuesday, a friend drove her to the centre.

Rouch’s daily routine, along with many other seniors and those with disabilities, changed Monday when HandyDART employees went on strike.

“I do something everyday,” Rouch said about the activities she does at the centre. “It is more or less my life.”

Without the HandyDART service, Rouch has to rely on friends or family to get her to the centre, but added that the chance of making it out more than twice a week is unlikely.

Afternoons spent playing bingo will, for the time being, be spent at home alone instead. Having lunch with friends will become a weekly treat instead of an everyday highlight.

With 500 employees on strike, only essential bus service are running, like for those who need renal dialysis and cancer treatment, making up roughly 12 per cent of HandyDART’s daily trips.

“They don’t think coming to the seniors centre is essential and I think it is, for our sanity and for our well-being,” Rouch said. “Talking to people you forget all your pains and aches yourself.”

For the other 88 per cent of trips for those who use the bus service for grocery shopping or meeting up with friends, coping with the strike will prove to be difficult.

Don Thorogood, 78, a Maple Ridge resident, might miss his flu shot this week if the weather doesn’t hold up. Thorogood, chair of the municipal accessibility committee, rides a power chair and used to take the HandyDART to municipal meetings, the seniors centre, and hospital appointments.

Without the bus service, Thorogood said that he, along with many friends, will just stay home.

“I have a heavy chair and I can’t get into a car. I could take a taxi because there is a taxi that takes power chairs, but that becomes quite expensive,” Thorogood said.

Around 4,500 of the daily 5,000 trips made by HandyDART are currently not operating. The Lower Mainland has roughly 28,000 HandyDART users.

The strike came after 10 months of negotiations between the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1724 and U.S.-based firm MVT Canadian Bus. MVT was awarded a three-year contract worth around $113-million for HandyDART from TransLink this past January, replacing several different agencies that used to run the service.

Dave Watt, the union local president, said that the company is seeking major concessions like weakening the pension plan and reducing shift lengths and benefits.

Ninety-seven per cent of union members voted for strike action several weeks ago and a 72-hour-strike notice was issued last Thursday.

MVT is offering to raise drivers’ pay by 3.7 per cent to $21.25 an hour.

The union is asking for a higher wage of $25.35 an hour.

MVT has tabled its “final offer” to the union.

Negotiations that were supposed to take place this past Tuesday between MVT and the union were cancelled.

MVT operations vice-president John Siragusa said that they were very disappointed of the union’s decision to strike.