City mulls over deeming TTC an essential service

Commuters board a subway at the Davisville station on the Yonge-University-Spadina line on Monday, April 28, 2008.

Toronto city council is mulling over declaring the city's public transit system an essential service.

Councillors are reacting to the public's outrage over the weekend when workers with the TTC abruptly walked off the job Friday night, leaving people stranded.

The striking staff was mandated back to work Sunday afternoon after the Ontario legislature sat down in a rare Sunday session to pass the back-to-work legislation.

On Tuesday, a motion will be tabled at Toronto's City Council asking for the TTC to be declared an essential service. The move would effectively end the union's right to strike.

Toronto Mayor David Miller is expected to recommend the matter be discussed by the executive committee before returning to city council for debate.

Critics are concerned that the designation could end up costing the city millions of dollars. Traditionally, essential service workers receive a richer contract than non-essential workers.

"Until Ottawa and Queen's Park come back and offer an operating subsidy an essential service status would bankrupt the city," said city councillor Adam Vaughan. "I'm prepared to look at it but Ottawa and Queen's Park have to respond to the understanding that it's an essential service."

TTC Chair and city councillor Adam Giambrone said he is weighing the pros and cons.

"I have not supported this in the past because of the costs," he said. "Clearly people feel very strongly about this and I have an obligation as the chair of the TTC to get my head around the issue to understand the pros and cons and that's what I'll be doing over the next couple of weeks."

Miller was incensed because the union had indicated it would give 48 hours notice before any strike. The public was given a little more than an hour's notice before workers walked off the job at midnight Friday.

The union said the abrupt notice was to shield workers from irate commuters.

Bob Kinnear, head of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, did not speak to the media throughout the weekend but on Monday morning he told CTV Toronto that he would not apologize for keeping his members safe.

"I'm not going to apologize for ensuring members had a safe withdrawal of service and I'm not going to apologize for making sure members were not verbally abused or worse, beaten," he said in a telephone interview.

Kinnear said he does sympathize with the people who found themselves without a way home.

"My own daughter was stranded," he said. "She didn't know what was going on so I do sympathize with the public and I regret it happened."

About 1.5 million people ride the TTC each day.

The rejected deal

On April 20, the union and city announced a deal. One day earlier Kinnear had warned Torontonians to prepare for a strike.

The TTC ratified the three-year deal, and the union's leadership recommended the membership vote in favour of accepting the offer.

But late Friday night, the union voted 65 per cent against accepting the deal. The union -- which represents operators, mechanics and maintenance workers -- has 8,900 members. It isn't clear how many voted.

The rejection fuelled speculation of infighting among the union's members. Kinnear said there are some issues that need to be dealt with by union members but Kinnear said he's confident he has the support of his colleagues and won't be resigning.

"Absolutely not," he said.

Kinnear spent Monday in meetings with legal counsel preparing for upcoming negotiations. An arbitrator has been chosen and now the two sides have 90 days to reach an agreement.

Miller said Sunday that negotiations now go back to square one. The two sides have agreed on an arbitrator.

Here is some of what the parties agreed to in the now-dead agreement:

Some conservatives on city council attacked the original deal for being too rich, although Miller insisted it was affordable. The Progressive Conservatives insisted the back-to-work bill include language that said any arbitrated settlement reflect the city's ability to pay.

Calm commuters

Toronto's public transit system ran smoothly throughout Monday, much to the relief of commuters.

When passing the legislation on Sunday, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty urged Torontonians to show TTC workers courtesy and respect when they returned on the job.

Commuters riding the TTC Monday said they're remaining calm but it's hard to forgive the weekend's events.

"Notice would have been nice for the people who were stranded on the weekend," said one woman.

"I understand there was a danger to the employees and there is no reason for the public to be rude to employees but they put a lot of people in danger," one man said.

"I'm just glad it's over," he said.

TTC drivers for their part said they were happy to be back on the job.

"People are good people and Torontonians are the best....just like the TTC," said one bus driver breaking into a smile.

With reports from CTV Toronto correspondents Naomi Parness, Galit Solomon and Alicia Kay-Markson