Conciliation talks are scheduled to begin today for bus drivers, custodians and tradespeople at a central Nova Scotia school board.
   
Employees in the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board voted 87 per cent in favour of strike action earlier this month.
   
The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3890 includes about 500 workers in Colchester, Pictou and Cumberland counties.
   
Local president Ron Davis has said the school board wants to eliminate the current minimum four-hour work day.
   
Davis says it also wants to stop paying bus drivers for the time it takes to drive the bus from the terminal to the first student’s home.
   
CUPE school board co-ordinator Kathy MacLeod says the union is hopeful that both sides will come to a negotiated settlement.