From the Cherniak on Politics comment section

This is where we separate “faux progressives” from real progressives.

TTC workers exercised their democratic right to reject the tentative deal.

TTC workers also exercised their lawful right to strike. There is no requirement under the law for them to notify anyone of when they were going to exercise that right.

You either believe in democratic rights or you don’t. And the true test of whether you believe in democratic rights or not is not when it’s convenient…but when it’s inconvenient.

The first folks that tyrannies around the world round up and throw in jail (or as in Colombia…kill) are trade unionists.

Also, I’m speaking as someone who on a recent visit to France was stranded due to a strike by workers on the French railway system. And I can assure you that French railway workers exercise their democratic right to strike much more frequently than Toronto transit workers.

Yes I was inconvenienced, but I was inconvenienced by democracy.

Faux progressives….. I like that.

From the position of the TTC, I would say the actions of the ATU collectively amount to a bad faith negotiation.

Firstly, the TTC was left under the impression by the ATU executive, that a deal was in place, and there was no reason to fear for a strike.

When the ATU members rejected the deal, that same executive, instead of providing the TTC an opportunity to return to the negotiating table, immediately walked off the job.

Considering that, up until around 10:00pm Friday night, the TTC was under no fair impression that it was at an impasse with the ATU, and was given no fair chance to respond.

This makes the ATU pretty much an asshole organization in my eyes.

From what I can tell, this rejection of the contract was precipitated by the increasingly militant arm of the ATU, the maintenance workers, who incidentally were also responsible for the illegal wildcat strike last year.

I fully support back-to-work legislation in this case. However, I am unhappy with how far this legislation goes.

Apparently members will not be open to termination by the TTC for refusing to comply with the order, they will only be subject to fines. Why can’t they be fired for refusing a back-to-work order? If we’re going to declare this an illegal strike, which the back-to-work legislation essentially does, why are we going to—at the same time—protect the jobs of these people?

They fucked over—by most accounts—at least 10,000 people in Toronto Friday night by leaving them stranded, without any degree of fair notice (1.5 hours). Let’s stop it with this half-pregnant back-to-work measure, that protects union jobs while only imposing fines, and fire the bastards who don’t show up tomorrow.

If that leads to the lot of them refusing to return to work… fire them all. Open it up to competitive contracting. Screw them.