From the Toronto Star:
Toronto Transit Commission drivers and operators will not report for work starting at 4 a.m. on Monday unless a deal is reached by Sunday afternoon, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 president Bob Kinnear said this morning. If there’s no contract agreement by 4 p.m. Sunday, he said, the union will begin notifying its 8,900 members that they are on strike.
UPDATE: Following the strike deadline announcement, the City has released its contingency plan.
In this plan, the city is reminding motorists of their responsibility to pull to the right for emergency vehicles (already the law) and to watch for pedestrians and cyclists.
It has also announced that the following streets where parking will be prohibited between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday to Friday, with no exceptions. Most of these are supposed to aid emergency vehicles, and many are near hospitals.
- Avenue Road/University Avenue, Lawrence to Front
- Bloor Street/Danforth Avenue, Jane to Victoria Park
- The entire length of Yonge Street
- Eglinton Avenue, Allen Road to Brentcliffe
- Bayview Avenue, Eglinton to Lawrence (leading to Sunnybrook Hospital)
- Finch Avenue, Highway 400 to Jane
- McCowan Road, Eglinton to Ellesmere
- Lawrence Avenue, Markham to Brimley
- The Queensway, Roncesvalles to Parkside
There will be some measures to assist carpoolers and cyclists. The transit-only lanes on Eglinton, Fleet, King and Pape will be opened up to cars or vans with three or more persons. Curb lanes on Bay (Queen’s Quay to Yorkville), Queen’s Quay (in the gap between the Martin Goodman trail on the east by Yonge and the bike lanes at Spadina), and Dundas (River to Broadview) will be designated for bicycles only.
Hopefully, these contingency measures will not be required and transit will roll on Monday as usual.
Photo by photo71
39 comments
I would be surprised if there will be a strike.It just makes you realize that owning a bike and having proper bike lanes is so important.
I feel sorry for all those who depend on the TTC for their daily travel.Should we make it essential to stop any future threats to stike?
Toronto clearly needs one of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Law
New Yorkers rest secure that transit strikes are illegal, and should one take place the unions will be harshly punished (as happened in 2005).
I’m not sure why the entire city has to pay for union whining!! Does it matter how many people are fully reliant on the TTC system?? Does it matter that if it wasn’t for the riders, there would not be a TTC! Why is it that the TTC union takes so much advantage of the situation??? Of course TTC management will have to give in to their ridiculous demands… the TTC drivers are brats! They get away with SO MUCH!! They don’t need enhanced benefits, they need training sessions!
They should ask kinnear and his union how much more in taxes they are willing to pay for a larger increase.
And YES! This in addition to every other Public Service should be deemed essential. Those that can’t abide …. get another job.
Put the previous three comments together and you end up at the inescapable conclusion that there are people out there who think that New York’s transit workers are a model of efficiency and politeness that stupid old Toronto could only barely hope to touch.
I envy these people. It must be fun to live in their world.
No so Anticorium… at least not myself.
If anything, without comparison, it is this ‘service’, union, its leadership, etc. that demand from us, the public, the ability to live in an entitled world.
Take that extreme-makeover dough that’s been allotted to the Bloor-Danforth line, and reallocate it to the workers. You’ll please TTC employees, and you’ll please transit preservationists as well.
Dear lord, the audacity of those people to want better working conditions and higher pay! Don’t they understand we’re all in a race to the bottom, and they’re just lucky we can’t outsource driving the King streetcar to Indonesia yet?
By the way, where are these rude TTC workers supposed to be? I always try to be polite to the TTC employees I deal with, and I always get politeness or better in return. You get what you give.
Do any of you Spacers (I think that’s a good name for Spacing bloggers, no?) know of a site where someone could get more info on the details of the ATU/TTC negotiations? I’ve been doing some searches and want to get a handle on the major stumbling blocks.
Thanks!
Transit is and should be considered an essential service with no option to strike.
Union bosses are gangsters and should be treated as such. Unions that represent civil servants are the worst of all. First they gouge taxpayers, and when they can’t gouge taxpayers any more they strike inconveniencing the same taxpayers they intend to gouge and ultimately end up gouging taxpayers anyway.
It’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
Josh, I think the two sides agreed not to fight out the issues in the media, so the details on exactly what they’re talking about have been sparse and unofficial. E.g. today’s article in the Star has Kinnear refuting earlier articles saying injury pay had been resolved.
Thanks Matt. I read a lot of news and have been surprised to find that I am relatively in the dark about what the major issues are between the union and the TTC. I know that injury pay is a big issue as is the pay increase. But facts and figures are hard to come by. It’s not easy for the public to form an educated opinion and diatribes from folks like Marc (above) are the result.
On the bright side, if the TTC does strike on Monday, it will provide a great opportunity to use the existing transit right-of-ways (St. Clair, Spadina, and Queens Quay) as exclusive cycling lanes, complete with their own traffic signals!
It’s good to know that once Transit City is built, there will be a network of dedicated right-of-way routes that can be used for cycling every few years when the TTC goes on strike!
Workers should have the right to strike. The possibility that one particular union (or its leadership) is using the strike threat frivolously doesn’t change that.
“Union bosses are gangsters and should be treated as such.”
Union bosses are gangsters. Police are gangsters. Politicians are gangsters. Activists are gangsters. Riding associations are gangsters. Ratepayer associations are gangsters. We’ve all got our gangs. Getting over this fact and judging each gang on its own merits seems more useful than vague ad hominems.
What would a civil service strike be without vague ad hominems coming out of the woodwork though? “Let them eat ad hominems” — isn’t that what she said?
It is not unusual to keep the public in the dark about these matters.These are private talks that don’t involve the public in any way.If you feel that you are not informed,deman more from the media who has “freedom of the press”status in this country.
You would think as shareholders in this city that full disclosure would be appropriate.
What you’re saying, Shawn, is that the cake is a fallacy?
Worse…there is no cake.
What I mean is, people should not eat cake while riding on the TTC. It is messy.
George seems to think everything needs to be open: why not televise the negotiations? Or put cameras in concillors offices?Or mic a councillor like they do to hockey players during games?
We vote for them to be in office so they can make the decisions that we do not have the time or expertise to deal with. “full disclosure” is a loaded phrase.
I am with everyone who has comment on wanting to know more. I think that we are not being provided with enough information which skews our views on the TTC, and almost makes it seem like the TTC are being portrayed as devils. Although, I am believer in fair working environments, so that when someone is injured on the job they get full compensation – I am not a believer in shutting down the city.
If they do this and they are out 2 weeks – are they going to compensate those who bought metro passes and weren’t able to use them.
I think that the city should start complying with what they want and forget about long overdue apologizes and just realize that without the TTC we are absolutely screwed!
I find it interesting that the union is poised to strike in the same year that the City implemented its new vehicle fee and land transfer tax. I know correlation does not imply causation, but I cannot help but wonder if the union is looking for a taste of the City’s revenue windfall.
Worse still – there is cake, but it is a lie.
Paul: In this case, it’s just correlation. Their collective bargaining agreement expired and they’re now in a legal strike position. They wouldn’t have known about the City’s impending windfall when they signed their last agreement in 2005.
So are we getting reimbursed for the lost day/days on our monthly passes?
It makes me feel even more angry, when i think that I spent my money and did not get the service, while that rude TTC driver gets both paid and a day off!!
Just for that, Smitty:
This is a conflict, I’m making a note here: MONDAY STRIKE
It’s hard to overstate my consternation.
TTC unions: they strike when they must, because they can
For the good of all of us, except the ones who must walk
But there’s no sense crying over streetcars we can’t take
You just keep on walking til you trip on a rake
And the union gets some and then buses will run
For the people who will have to walk
I’m not even angry.
I’m being so sincere right now.
Even though my Metropass is wasted
And totally useless for almost maybe half of the month
As I shred it, it hurts because I ride the 502!
Now the Bloor-Danforth makes a beautiful line
But as of Monday the trains are offside
So Toronto gets burned but think of all the things we learned
For the people who have to walk.
Go ahead and drive there. I think I prefer to stay inside
Maybe you’ll find a different route that’s cheaper
Like the 407, that was a joke, ha ha, fat chance
Anyway this cake is great, it’s so delicious and moist
Look at me still talking when negotiations aren’t through
Webster and Kinnear? I’m glad I’m not you
I’ve sidewalks to patrol and spacing wire posts to… comment on
For the people who have to walk.
And believe me, I am gonna walk
They’re at loggerheads so I’m gonna walk
The weather’s fantastic so I’m gonna walk
While they’re striking I’m gonna walk
And when they’re back I might just still walk
Still walk
Still walk
That warms me in a deep and nerdy place.
I think it is going to be a crazy surprise on monday. Once in a decade, people will say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y45Z7ql49M
this is the interview you never saw on CITY-TV
freedom to know the truth about our elected representatives?Censorship brings the destruction to any democracy.
“CityTV shooting footage that CityTV doesn’t put on the air” isn’t censorship, George. It’s editorial control. Will publications still be allowed to exercise that when you’re king? Because if not, there’s a lot of poorly-drawn editorial cartoons I’ve done that are going to have to show up in tomorrow’s Star or democracy will be destroyed.
Im just providing a little bit of what the public never sees!I know city-tv has editorial control and that is exactly what its all about,control.I wonder if anybody out there believes that they get the “whole story” when it comes to politics.Sometimes if all the facts aren’t shown or heard there is a tendency to believe that it never happened.So what is really going on behind those closed doors at the TTC that will affect the lives of millions of Torontonians?I’m sure the public has a right to know,that is if we live in a democracy!
Until such time as I see the live camera feed of your bathroom, George, I’m going to doubt that you really believe in transparency as much as you claim.
Of course the TTC is not only a public transportation faciity it is as well integral a part of GTA infrastructure as police, medical and fire dept;
what city councillors/govt need to do is to deregulate ‘union’ status of TTC ASAP.. as evidenced by this present potential strike…consistantly have monopolized socio economic functionability and public network generally: This is clearly unacceptable.
Let us as well keep in mind our TTC, unlike smaller communities’ transportation systems and alternatives,
is.. if not the largest… the second to third largest public transportation facility in N. America and that itself reflects its instrumental nature in Toronto’s life and economy.
FCUK the Union
TTC is the only service that goes on stike every other year.
Seriously… WTF?!
BK> If you’re going to be an ill-informed loudmouth, try to be only partially ill-informed. Apart from the rediculous wildcat day-strike of 06, when was the last last TTC strike? A decade ago? Keep yellin though.
As a regular TTC user, I spoke with a female TTC employee recently whose nickname for the TTC was the “Travelling Trash Can”. She said that the TTC does not listen to its own drivers concerns regarding fares, routes and safety and many other important issues. It’s been a long time sime the TTC did any hiring, therefore many long-time highly paid employees are raking in huge overtime hours. These drivers, ticket collectors etc. could care less about being on schedule or taking an impromptu vacation when they are guaranteed a nice fat retirement.
It’s time to trim the fat and start hiring some young folks and maybe think about redesigning the interior of the old streetcars so that one person with a baby carriage doesn’t block access to the entire car.
The “over the hill” crowd would also like to see a public toilet at every station. If you get on the system in Scarborough and have to HOLD IT until you get to Kipling Station (since the bathrooms at Yonge & Bloor never seem to be functioning) you’re in big trouble. (I actually had to go “down the tracks” one time to relieve myself because I was in the middle of a 90 minute commute and none of the PUBLIC facilities were open).
GET YOUR POOP IN A PILE TTC!!!!
Cmon everybody lets not trash talk the workers.It’s management that is the problem and its a problem thats endemic throughout the company.The TTC workers have every right to benefit from their contract.But they don’t have to put up with the daily abuse that is thrown at them.Citizens should demand their councillors to do their job and have them approach management to do a “better job”.
Anticorium>do u have yahoo or msn live ?where do u want me to put the web cam?Just can’t imagine why you would want to see me on the can, but each to their own I guess.