TTC Strike?

Back to work legislation doesn’t work by declaring a service “essential” – these are 2 separate pieces of legislation.

Immediately put forward is back to work legislation that will force the TTC to end the strike and start an arbitration process that will force the city and the TTC into a contract.

After this strike is resolved the greater issue of declaring the TTC an essential service will be put decided upon by the province. If that passes then the TTC will not be able to strike (like firefighters) but apparently may ended up costing the city more as there is less bargaining room with contract negotiations.

So the 2 legislative actions are related but have no direct relationship, Back to Work is a band-aid that just affects this current specific situation while making the TTC an essential service is the ‘cure’ that will prevent strikes like this from happening again. This needs to happen in a 2-stage process because declaring something an essential service requires a great deal more debate, planning, and negotiating.

Thanks for the answer, but I feel a better piece of legislation would be to outlaw the transit union altogether and put the TTC into the hands of a commercial enterprise that would pay more reasonable wages for an honest days work. I mean what can we think of an unskilled person sitting with their feet up all day long being paid $25 per hour. I see the “ticket collector” at the Yonge/Bloor station doing this and most of the time they are talking to someone and not even watching the fare box. I say fire the lot of them and hire people willing to work for an honest wage.

Just to clarify my answer, it was in response to your questions – I wasn’t particularly trying to advocate one side or another…

But yeah, I agree that the TTC is grossly mismanaged in any number of different ways. But I do think that an effectively managed public service wouldn’t command such unrealistic wages. One problem I see with privatising our cities’ only public transit system is that certain routes would simply be unprofitable and discontinued even though that’s probably where transit might be needed most. There are good examples of private municipal transit services but mostly as an additional option, not as the only option.

The other thing I don’t get is why are they always so rude??? You’re paid far above industry norm for the service you provide, at least do your job with a smile!