[URBAN NOTE] The TTC is on strike

[rfmcdonald]

The TTC is on strike.

Subways, streetcars and buses were taken out of service at midnight after TTC workers rejected a tentative contract settlement.

But the strike could be over by Monday as the provincial government scrambles to put together back-to-work legislation that could be passed as early as Sunday.

Government House Leader Michael Bryant has been advising Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats that an order in council will be passed today, clearing the way for tomorrow's session.

A draft of the bill should be available today to give MPPs in all three parties time to vet it.

The Sunday passage of the law would guarantee that Monday morning commuters will not be inconvenienced.

Within minutes of the contract being rejected, the provincial labour ministry announced mediators were calling union officials and the TTC back to the bargaining table at 1 p.m. today.

The tentative deal was rejected by 65 per cent of the 9,000 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, including operating and maintenance employees.

"We have assessed the situation and decided that we will not expose our members to the dangers of assaults from angry and irrational members of the public," said union president Bob Kinnear.

The union has been in a legal strike position since April 1 but had promised 48 hours' notice of a service withdrawal.

Kinnear said union members had faced increased threats from passengers, despite giving the notice. This time, he said, they wouldn't be so generous.

I should be straight here: I didn't feel very friendly towards the burly TTC worker who was standing outside of the Wellesley station at 12:45 am last night, yelling to everyone that there was no TTC service and telling me to listen to the radio when I asked what was going on. But were those sorts of feelings only the cause of the union's surprise announcement, or also an effect?

On the streets, TTC riders and drivers alike were caught by surprise.

In the minutes before midnight word of the strike spread among TTC riders unsure of how they'd get home.

"Fuck TTC, Fuck TTC!" chanted one group of disgruntled riders outside the Davisville subway station.

Minutes earlier, Al Evans, a bus driver, had pulled the 97A bus out of the depot and embarked north on Yonge Street.

"No one's told me anything about a strike," he said, as he began to radio central command.

"I hope there isn't one because it's Friday night and people got to get home."

Mr. Evans said he voted no to the agreement because he had friends who were maintenance workers, and it didn't look out for their interests.

John Conley, 32, was riding eastbound on the Bloor-Danforth line when he heard the news. He uses the subway every day to go to work at Yonge and Front as a bank manager. The only alternative he has to get there from his Avenue Road and St. Clair Avenue home is to walk.

As has been pointed out above and doubtless will be pointed out elsewhere, shutting down TTC service in the middle of a Friday night is really not the best way to earn brownie points with anyone.

blogTO has coverage, while Torontoist has tagged its ongoing coverage of the strike. toronto's post contains much more heat than light.

On the plus side, I no longer have any reason not to bike or walk to work.