According to the Toronto Star:
The union is in a legal strike position at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, but Kinnear said a strike now wouldn’t likely happen for a week or two.
Kinnear made the announcement today shortly before noon.
“We have made a commitment to the city that there would be an advisement of at least 48 hours if, in fact, the talks go off the rails before any work action would be taken,” Kinnear said.
“That probably wouldn’t happen for one or two weeks at least from now, as long as things continue to progress.”
15 comments
TTC needs to stop their yearly striking! I have bills to pay! It’s not fun loosing money for every day they strike while TTC keeps increasing their prices. $109.00 is too much! Anymore increases and using that $109.00 amount to finance a new car!
If they don’t like they pay, why don’t they just go find another one?
Screw this, I’m not going to pay $109 just to have TTC workers sit on their asses. I’M going on strike from the TTC and not buying a metro pass in April.
Time to dust off the bicycle!
TTC is a public service as important as policing and the fire department, if a cog falls out of place, the city will fall apart again, we depend on this service. Get your shit together people.
I don’t understand why TTC workers believe their job is SO dangerous and stressful and they deserve 100% sick pay or injury coverage. Barely ANYONE gets that – what makes them so special? Their job isn’t NEARLY as dangerous as others – nurses, police officers, paramedics, fire fighters. And the way that their service is going, I’m not surprised that people are angry daily at them while they are on the job. Nothing like a strike to top it all off. TTC, you need to smarten up.
good news anyway
If any of you have actually spoken to a TTC driver recently you’d understand. Open up your eyes and ears and pay attention to the way these people get treated. You compare them with paramedics and firefighters, as they are just as important, than why don’t they get the same respect. How come when my friendly bus driver got attacked by a crazy homeless man last year and had to be off the job for a week does he get loss of pay??? That’s just bull. If any of you live in an area with high school children you’d seriously understand the abuse these people have to put up with. They’re not really asking for money, they’re asking for SAFETY which I think they very much deserve. If they don’t get it, this city is stupider than I ever imagined. Why are we spending money on fixing up museum station, when we could put that amount toward installing shields for the bus drivers??? There’s a whole bunch of idiots dealing with this issue right now, and the only people it’s hurting is the general public….. and perhaps the Mayor since he subways to work every morning….
i would like to work for the ttc. id love to work 18hrs everyday if i can for 25 bucks an hour. i read the other day that there is apparently unlimited overtime. 100,000 a year sounds good to me and you dont have to buy a metro pass for 109 dollars. and with all the benefits and priveledges. it is just insanely sweet. email me i love the ttc. ill sweep the floor, make coffe in the morning, clean subways or street cars…please i already have a ttc hat
I ride the TTC everyday. I understand that they deal with people who are frustrated with the services of the TTC. As a streetcar rider I get short-turned every other day and while I know the driver is not to blame – but dispatchers are – they get the brunt of it.
They KNOW this is part of their job. Nearly all jobs now involve some sort of customer service. I deal with people on a daily basis too and not all of them are kind to me. Does that mean everytime someone yells at me I should get a week off work? WITH full pay? no.. but in a perfect world I would!
The TTC needs to smarten up, and realize they are not the only people in the world who have to deal with difficult people on a daily basis. They get paid far better than I do for it.
I have been riding TTC now for about 6 months, it is one of the better transit, that I have to admit. Its rapid transit service is EXCELLENT. However, w/ the hourly pay of ~$24-26/hr and STILL demanding FULL 100% sick pay, job injuries, I think IS still TOO DEMANDING. Have you ever thought of BUS DRIVERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES???????? I think bus drivers here are VERY fortunate to get that kind of pay to BEGIN W/, LEARN TO START APPRECIATING WITH WHAT YOU HAVE TTC EMPLOYEES!
Tina, I don’t know what you do for work, but I’m guessing you don’t get paid the rate someone in a “DEVELOPING COUNTRY” would be.
All public transit unions should be declared an essential service. Not that I have anything against the TTC or whatever financial squabbles they may have, but to bring the city down on its knees affecting every taxpaying citizen is not something any union should be allowed to do. What did the commuters do to deserve this anyway?
It is important to place the relationship between the transit workers and the city (management) in the bigger picture: the TTC is suffering because the province and the FEDS are not sharing the cost.
If we really believe transit is an “essential service”, we need to insist that our governments treat it as such and provide both for infrastructure and the creation of decent jobs in the system. THIS is a plan for excellent service, yet we find it easier to demonize ttc workers as greedy and lazy. That’s totally offensive.
these bastards want back the consessions they gave up when harris was in charge. We all took it in the teeth then. We dont get back why should they. As long as comrade Miller and his ilk are in city Hall they get it. Wake up Toronto! they’ holding us hostage.
This is from the Toronto Star:
TTC workers make about $26.58 an hour compared with $26.62 for Mississauga Transit workers, who got a 4 per cent increase in their last contract, Kinnear said in February. Toronto transit workers aren’t willing to fall further behind, he said then.
The Toronto union expected the commission would present a stronger offer after its members almost unanimously rejected a first contract offer March 12, but that hasn’t happened, said the Star source. “They’re just moving (the money) around.”
It also said that front-line workers are beaten, threatened and spit upon, which is really sad, but a pay increase will not solve this problem will it? It will happene whether they make $70,000 or $100,000 a year. So if greed is what drives them, the public will be more angrier with them, and that may result in more violence. Why doesn’t TTC reveal more about this TTC strike, so the public can UNDERSTAND more clearly what strikers want.
we hope the Government will pass the back-to- work legislature today , because this is the only language the TTC union and it’s leader understand i guess, a TTC employee who sell tickets makes hundred thousand bucks a year , and they are not happy.