Talks in the six-week-old York Region Transit strike ended quickly Saturday after the two sides butted heads over health care benefits.

Union officials with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 and Viva (Veolia) management returned to the bargaining table for the first time since workers walked off the job on Oct. 24.

But the talks collapsed just before noon as the sides disagreed on how much money the employees should pay for their own health care benefits package.

Union president Bob Kinnear said his members were willing to lower their wage expectations and drop some other issues in exchange for the company boosting its level of health care contributions.

Viva bus drivers currently pay half the cost of their benefits -- about $6.95 per day for family coverage. The union is seeking full coverage, which it said is the standard for other GTA transit workers.

But Viva scuttled the talks after it refused to respond to the union's offer.

"It is important to point out that the union made the first move towards getting a settlement, and it was a substantial move for our people," Kinnear said in a release.

"We then dropped our proposal once again but the company walked away."

Kinnear said the union lowered its wage expectations to 2.7 per cent in the first year, 2.8 per cent in the second and 2.9 per cent in the third year.

Viva responded with a four-year deal calling for a three per cent wage increase in the first year and a total of 10 per cent over the full four years.

The union then countered with 2.6 per cent in the first year of a three-year agreement and a total wage increase over the life of the agreement of only 8.1 per cent to help the company move incrementally to full cost benefits by 2013.

Viva then walked away from the table.

"We've done everything we can to try to settle this. Veolia's attempts to squeeze the health care of their employees' families is as inexplicable as it is offensive," said Kinnear.

"It looks once again like the only way this is going to get settled is through arbitration. We'll go back to work tomorrow if the company agrees to this."

Some 220 Viva workers are represented by Local 113, while another 340 are represented by a different union.