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Workers Who Clean Public Transit in BC and Ontario Say Their Employer is Undermining Their Rights
Workers allege harassment from management, a lack of cleaning supplies and unsafe working conditions.
by Emma Arkell, Labour Reporter
July 15, 2026
In two of Canada’s biggest cities, the workers who clean public transit say they are facing worsening working conditions at the hands of a billion-dollar company.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2, the union representing many of the janitorial workers on public transit in Toronto and Vancouver, has alleged workers are facing harassment from management, being told to clean without chemicals and instructed to work alone in unsafe conditions.
On Tuesday, SEIU announced that the union filed unfair labour practice complaints against the workers’ employer, Dexterra Group, in both British Columbia and Ontario, following months of demonstrations urging the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and TransLink to end their contracts with the company.
The union has also accused Dexterra of subcontracting work to other non-union companies and laying off workers en masse.
Dexterra is a facilities management company with operations across Canada and the United States. The company made $1.04 billion in revenue in 2025.
Tom Galivan, secretary-treasurer and director of organizing for SEIU Local 2, told PressProgress that the deteriorating working conditions in both cities under the same employer demonstrates a clear pattern.
“This wasn’t a rogue operations manager in a city or a province,” said Galivan. “This was a business strategy of Dexterra, where they were attempting to grow their market share principally by undermining worker rights and avoiding their obligations under our collective agreements.”
Galivan said the relationship between the union and Dexterra started to deteriorate at the beginning of 2025, when he said the company told the union that they no longer had contracts with the TTC and Crosslinx, the consortium responsible for building and maintaining the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, that would fall under SEIU’s city-wide janitorial agreement in Toronto.
Galivan said the union later found out that wasn’t true.
“In misrepresenting that fact, they sought both to avoid applying the existing collective agreement, which under Ontario law would still be applying right now, but also avoided sitting down with the other companies in the city and negotiating improvements,” said Galivan.
Galivan said Dexterra has been ignoring the collective agreement and sub-contracting out work on the TTC and CrossLinx to smaller staffing companies who employ non-union workers.
“In one case, we’ve spoken with a worker working in the Toronto transit system who’s informed us that that subcontractor pays cash under the table and at rates that are below the provincial mandated minimum wage,” said Galivan.
In a statement to PressProgress, a representative for the TTC confirmed that it has “a small contract” with Dexterra for “in-service streetcar cleaning,” and that any subcontracting needs to first be approved by the TTC.
“At this time, TTC has not approved any subcontract and is not aware that any of the work has been subcontracted by Dexterra. TTC will be reaching out directly to SEIU for additional information and to clarify the record.”
Metrolinx and Crosslinx did not respond to requests for comment from PressProgress.
Cleaning contracts for institutions like transit systems, universities and retail complexes are awarded through a competitive bidding model that favours companies that can offer the lowest price, which Galivan said results in “companies trying to underbid each other at the expense of worker standards.”
He said this model makes unionizing and raising standards in janitorial work challenging for unions, so SEIU has taken a sectoral approach to organizing — starting with organizing large private janitorial companies and then creating a central bargaining table where collective agreements that cover all of the cleaning work in buildings of a certain size in a given city are bargained. SEIU has sector-wide agreements for Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax and Vancouver.
Galivan said this kind of sub-contracting means that unions like SEIU have to constantly audit the accounts of the companies that their membership works for to ensure that the companies are complying with SEIU’s collective agreements. He said it’s not uncommon for companies like Dexterra to under-bid other companies in order to win contracts, and then sub-contract out the work.
“The cost advantage that they’re trying to get comes at the cost of workers’ wages [and] benefits,” said Galivan.
A spokesperson for Dexterra told PressProgress that the company is aware of the concerns raised by SEIU Local 2 and is “committed to working through the appropriate processes with SEIU Local 2 and other relevant stakeholders.”
Dexterra did not respond to questions from PressProgress regarding specific allegations from workers and the union.
In February 2026, Dexterra took over the contract to clean the SkyTrain stations on two of Vancouver’s three light rail transit lines, which are owned and operated by BC Rapid Transit Company (BCRTC), a subsidiary of TransLink. The third Skytrain line, the Canada Line, is operationally independent, though Dexterra employs non-union janitorial staff on that line as well.
Dallis Van Steinberg, the SEIU representative for SkyTrain workers, said the switch from the previous cleaning company to Dexterra was “like night and day.”
“Dexterra took over and right away came in with zero tools, like no cleaning supplies, no nothing,” Van Steinberg told PressProgress. “[They were] telling workers to clean with water and not chemicals and not following biohazard practices. There were a lot of concerns.”
In addition to not providing cleaning chemicals or proper protective equipment for workers, the union claimed in its unfair labour practice complaint to the BC Labour Relations Board (BCLRB) that Dexterra has laid off over 15% of the SkyTrain janitorial staff, forcing workers to be responsible for cleaning more stations in less time.
Van Steinberg said Dexterra has since brought back some of the workers who were laid off as casual workers in non-union roles in order to support the influx of riders during the FIFA World Cup.
“They needed workers, and so instead of bringing them back to full-time positions, which they have and need, they decided they were going to make a casual pool list, and try to pull as many casual workers as they can,” said Van Steinberg.
Lenna McVetty has worked on the SkyTrain for four years, where she’s currently a lead hand and a shop steward. As part of her job, she checks the cleanliness of SkyTrain stations and coordinates cleaning with other workers.
She said Dexterra failed to appropriately plan for the explosion in ridership during Vancouver’s World Cup games, which made the situation for workers tasked with cleaning the transit system even worse.
“They just threw us in there,” McVetty told PressProgress. “They had nothing planned.”
McVetty said she’s often hesitant to report messes to management because she knows her coworkers are stretched thin and they don’t have time to deep clean stations with their current workload.
“They demand way too much from our workers right now and they’re overworking them,” McVetty said.
Janitorial work can be very physically demanding, requiring workers to reach, bend, lift heavy materials and do repetitive movements that strain the body and contribute to the sector’s high rate of injury.
McVetty added many of her coworkers go on and off workers’ compensation in order to deal with their injuries.
Both McVetty and Van Steinberg told PressProgress that when workers have brought safety issues to management’s attention, like working in ‘yellow line’ areas close to train tracks, their employment has been threatened. For employees on work permits, that brings fears of losing their ability to live and work in Canada.
“They would threaten them and say, ‘if you don’t clean the yellow line alone while the train is running, we’re going to make sure your visa card gets revoked, you won’t work here anymore, you won’t have a job, you won’t be able to send money back home.’”
In a statement to PressProgress, a spokesperson from TransLink wrote that “BCRTC has verified that Dexterra has adequate cleaning supplies for staff and has found no evidence of employee mistreatment. ”
Since March, SEIU Local 2 has filed grievances against Dexterra at the BCLRB concerning layoffs, unsafe work, working alone, harassment, failure to provide cleaning supplies and subcontracting.
The union has also filed an unfair labour practice and requested that the BCLRB appoint a special officer to resolve “the ongoing workplace collapse.”
Van Steinberg told PressProgress that TransLink has not met with the union despite a number of organizations, including the BC Federation of Labour and Vancouver’s FIFA Host City Committee, reaching out to TransLink about the workers’ concerns.
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In a response to BC Federation of Labour’s April 10 letter urging TransLink to address the safety and staffing issues brought forward by SEIU, CEO Kevin Quinn wrote that TransLink “has not identified systemic performance gaps from contractual service standards, nor any service shortfalls” during audits of the cleanliness of the SkyTrain system.
“As TransLink and BCRTC are not the employer of the SEIU Local 2 cleaning staff, we encourage you to raise any concerns in this regard directly with the employer, Dexterra Group,” wrote Quinn.
TransLink did not directly respond to questions from PressProgress regarding meetings between the union and TransLink. In a statement, a spokesperson for TransLink said the issues brought forward by workers are “being addressed through the established processes between the union, employees, and their employer.”
“TransLink and BCRTC expect all contractors to comply with all legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements.”
According to a letter from SEIU Local 2 to Minister of Transportation and Transit Mike Farnworth reviewed by PressProgress, the union met with Farnworth and Minister of Labour Jennifer Whiteside in April to discuss health and safety concerns on the SkyTrain.
A representative from SEIU Local 2 told PressProgress that the union has not received any response from Minister Farnworth.
Minister Farnworth’s office did not respond to PressProgress’ requests for comment prior to publication.
Minister Whiteside’s office did not directly respond to questions from PressProgress regarding workers’ concerns.
Representatives and workers from SEIU Local 2, took their concerns to the TransLink board of directors at their June 24 meeting.
“Workers have raised these concerns many times. They are not asking for anything extra, they are asking to work safely, and go home safely,” SkyTrain cleaner Sanchit Sharma told the board.
“When workers feel afraid to speak up, safety is no longer being managed, it is being silenced.”
Galivan said he would like to see institutions like the TTC and TransLink apply a more critical eye to contract bids before contracts are awarded to “bad actors,” and include requirements in their contracts that would require companies to self-perform the work and prohibit sub-contracting.
“The TTC has the expertise to do the due diligence to determine whether or not that price is too good to be true,” said Galivan.
Emma Arkell is PressProgress’ Labour Reporter. Her reporting focuses on the construction trades, workplace health and safety, low-wage workers and corporate influence on labour policy.
