[URBAN NOTE] After the strike
Apr. 28th, 2008 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI'm still annoyed by the pointless rudeness of the TTC worker who decided to be pointlessly rude to me the night of the strike. I'm considerably more upset about the union's inadvertant decision to separate me from the CPAP machine that I use to treat my sleep apnea at home, ensuring that I'd wake up Saturday morning with the hours of headachey disorientation that I have been so happy to escape. If I had been forced to make my commute this morning in the light spring rain, I--and who knows how many others?--might have looked kindly upon radical measures like strikebreaking or a spite-driven privatization of the TTC.
The TTC workers are fortunate that this didn't come to pass. As Reuters reported, the TTC workers' union obeyed the Provincial Parliament's order to go back to work, with full service resuming by this morning. This has done absolutely nothing to abort the nice movement afoot to declare the TTC an essential service, preventing its workers from going on strike in exchange for rapid binding mediation.
One more thing. A commenter at Torontoist linked to statistics from the City of Toronto which provide the average hourly wage rate for different occupational groups in Toronto.
Further, the TTC workers' union has a website, worthamillion.ca.
Really? After the workers rejected a contract that would have promised them a 3% wage increase even as Ontario is entering a recession?
That's a bit of gall, don't you think?
The TTC workers are fortunate that this didn't come to pass. As Reuters reported, the TTC workers' union obeyed the Provincial Parliament's order to go back to work, with full service resuming by this morning. This has done absolutely nothing to abort the nice movement afoot to declare the TTC an essential service, preventing its workers from going on strike in exchange for rapid binding mediation.
The union leadership, isolated after its members ignored a recommendation to ratify the latest contract, will meet with veteran arbitrator Kevin Burkett to arrange new terms. Union leader Bob Kinnear was unavailable throughout the weekend.
But already the union's traditional allies, including Mayor David Miller, are accepting that the status quo cannot remain.
Mr. McGuinty has said he will consider any request from the city to make the Toronto Transit Commission an essential service and Mr. Miller's own position has shifted in the past two days.
The mayor said yesterday that he does not want to take a definitive stand on whether Toronto should follow Montreal's lead by depriving the city's transit employees of the right ever to walk off the job again. But he has agreed to put the matter on the agenda at council's regular monthly meeting tomorrow, which marks a shift from his earlier resistance to the idea.
"It is a difficult issue and that is why it requires some thought," he said. "You should not react in a knee-jerk fashion and I am confident council will do it in a thoughtful way.">
One more thing. A commenter at Torontoist linked to statistics from the City of Toronto which provide the average hourly wage rate for different occupational groups in Toronto.
Cashiers $8.65
Truck Drivers $17.90
Delivery and Courier Service Drivers $12.95
Sales, Marketing and Advertising Managers $24.65
Chemical Engineers $27.05
Civil Engineers $24.85
Head Nurses and Supervisors $24.27
Secondary School Teachers $27.60
Social Workers $26.05
Crane Operators $24.40
TTC Drivers and Collectors: $26.58.
Further, the TTC workers' union has a website, worthamillion.ca.
Really? After the workers rejected a contract that would have promised them a 3% wage increase even as Ontario is entering a recession?
That's a bit of gall, don't you think?
