Great Canadian Political Divide Bridged
Contrary to what you may read in various corners of the blogosphere and the mainstream media the world at the centre of the universe has not come to an end, disasters of city killing proportions have not befallen them, and people will survive – it’s only a strike.
I do find it humourous that members of each side of the great Canadian political divide have found common ground in the call for public transit to be designated by government as an “essential service” and immediately legislated back to work.
Yes folks, in aid of some perceived right to public transit the progress-o-sphere wants the unions neutered, and the conserv-o-sphere is calling for government interference in the workplace — who would have thunk it?
I was particularly impressed with one progressive call for people to go to the fish market, ask for buckets of rotten fish guts, throw said buckets of rotten fish guts at striking TTC workers, and then watch the sea gulls swoop down and bite them — how…. ah …… progressive of them ‘eh?
Mark this date on your calendar folks, the political divide has been bridged by public transit, or, as is the case today, the lack thereof.
From the Cherniak on Politics comment section
Faux progressives….. I like that.
As you know, I support public transit, and the right of workers to collectively organize and strike, but that doesn’t stop us from commenting on the way this particular union handled its right to strike. Check out Steve Munro’s blog here:
http://stevemunro.ca/?p=819
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.
Actually, I wouldn’t mind seeing this. For it would be interesting to see how much harder and how much more money the TTC would have to spend to replace 9000 drivers, maintenance workers and collectors, give them the training they require, and put them to work.
While you are right in your assessment that the ATU Local 113 executive screwed up in calling a strike on such short notice (and they screwed up their membership, as I’m hearing quotes from operators and collectors who were upset that the strike was called so suddenly, especially those who had to face the angry crowds as the subways closed early — note that a 65% rejection of a deal does not necessarily translate into 65% support for an immediate strike). And here’s another area where the executive screwed up its membership: if the lack of support for maintenance workers was such a deal breaker, what was the Executive thinking in negotiating such a deal with management in the first place? That shows poor communication between the executive and its membership, and the strike seems like an act of desperation by Bob Kinnear to play catch-up with is membership.
But to my original point: too many people out there call the TTC workers overpaid. They’re not. Indeed, the TTC is having difficulty keeping its employees, as many drivers are leaving for private charter bus companies where the wages are as high, and they get to keep tips. The market economy is playing the biggest part in determining what these workers are being paid. So, by all means, let’s have the workers resign, and throw open the cost of hiring the new workforce to the market. You may not like the result.