As early as this Friday, June 7, 12,000 transit workers in Toronto, members of ATU Local 113, could walk off the job. This would be the first strike at the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) since 2008. A strike by TTC workers would shut down public transit in Canada’s largest city and become an immediate political flashpoint in the province.
ATU 113 represents operators, collectors, maintenance workers, station staff, and other frontline employees in Toronto. The union’s current contract expired on March 31 of this year and they have been engaged in bargaining since. This is the first round of negotiations since the union won back its right to strike. In the wake of the brief 2008 TTC strike and the CUPE municipal workers strike in 2009, Toronto City Council joined in the broader attack on workers rights by privatizing garbage collection and pushing the province to strip away the transit workers’ right to strike.
Attacking workers means worse transit
The Toronto Transit Commission Labour Disputes Resolution Act passed in 2011 by the provincial Liberal government removed the right to strike from ATU 113. This assault on the collective bargaining rights of TTC workers paved the way for attacks on workers’ wages and working conditions and the privatization of services.
As Marvin Alfred, President of ATU 113 noted last year:
“The employer has been taking advantage of this legislation and not authentically dealing with us. We’ve just about had to negotiate our right to oxygen and sunshine when anytime we are dealing with the employer they know they always had this in their pocket, that they knew they could mistreat us based on this legislation.”
Wages for TTC workers have consistently failed to keep with inflation over the last decade. Their last agreement saw wages increase at roughly two percent a year, well below sky-high inflation numbers, which rose over 14 percent during the life of the agreement.
Undercutting worker’s collective bargaining rights at the TTC has allowed the management, the municipality, and the province to advance a privatization agenda and cut services. Cleaning services, fare collection, maintenance have all been the subject of privatization. The unconstitutional removal of the right to strike clearly tilted the balance of power in favour of management.
The weakening of workers’ power at the TTC has had a notable impact on riders. The TTC is an underfunded service that has an overreliance on money collected from the fare box. Roughly 70 percent of operations are funded via the fare box, the highest rate for any municipal transit system in North America. This speaks to the decades of systematic underfunding of public transit by successive federal and provincial governments.
In 1995, Mike Harris’ Conservative government slashed funding to capital projects at the TTC and in 1998, they ended subsidies to the TTC’s operating budget. This left a massive financial hole in the TTC budget that has not been filled. Harris also killed the Eglinton West Line, which had begun construction in 1994, setting back the TTC’s capacity for a generation.
The TTC is now pushing to reduce service levels in Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough by integrating transit service across municipal boundaries. This would remove TTC buses from routes and reduce services as MiWay, York Region Transit and Durham Region Transit have worse service standards than the TTC. For the union, this move would threaten the job security of many of its members. For riders, this would reduce service and lessen accountability.
Anyone who regularly takes the TTC knows there are problems. Buses are too infrequent, often overcrowded and delays are all too common. Unfortunately, because TTC operators are the most visible and accessible people at the TTC they too often bear the brunt of people’s frustration. Assault on operators has skyrocketed in the last five years.
The truth is that workers and riders’ interests are aligned. Workers want to see improved service at the TTC. Greater frequency on routes and expansion of services means more jobs. It also means happier riders, which makes operators’ jobs easier.
The union is staunchly opposed to the creeping privatization at the TTC. When services and maintenance are outsourced to private companies it means those profits are put before the interests of workers and riders. Privatization puts downward pressure on job security, benefits and wages for TTC workers. It also results in poorer quality work and inefficiency. The Eglinton Crosstown is a perfect encapsulation of this problem. The project started in 2011 was supposed to be completed by 2020. It has faced major cost overruns and delays. Public money has lined the pockets of big construction firms. Metrolinx has even had to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuit settlements to these very firms. And there is still not a workable Crosstown line. The public private partnership has failed the public, while enriching corporations.
Striking for public transit
Having recently gotten their right to strike back, ATU 113 went into negotiations empowered to fight for their members and public transit. In their April strike vote, with 77 percent turnout, 98 percent of members voted to authorize a strike if needed.
The members’ key issues are keeping transit public, job security, and wages that keep up with inflation. With a no board report having been issued, the union could be on strike as soon as June 7.
For millions of working class people who rely on the TTC, a strike will be a massive headache. People will struggle to get to work, arrange transportation for their kids, and move around the city like they normally do. The business class will also absolutely loathe a TTC strike, as it will cause workers to either miss or be late to work and disrupt the normal flow of commerce. The shutdown of the TTC will stoke anger. The question is where this anger will be directed.
The ruling class will aim to pit workers against each other. The media, the big business lobby and politicians will direct their fury at the union. This is already starting to happen. Martin Regg Cohn’s recent article in the Toronto Star started sowing the seeds of working class division, arguing “There is nothing especially fair about transit workers withdrawing their labour — while receiving strike pay from their union — when millions of other workers must pay the price in lost wages, time and possibly safety issues.” He even fear mongered about the union halting Wheel-Trans service, knowing full the union will allow that service to keep operating.
The rightwing will also aim to direct fire at Olivia Chow and Toronto City Council. Chow, who was elected in last year’s by-election received strong support from ATU 113 during her election bid. She has supported reversing the previous cuts to transit service, but has remained silent on the cross boundary transit issue.
Chow is not vocalizing support for the union that supported her nor championing issues they are raising. David Miller, the leftwing Mayor the last time transit workers struck, quickly turned on transit workers, calling their strike “unacceptable and irresponsible” and advocated for the Liberals to pass back to work legislation. While Chow may disappoint, the true power to address the systemic issues with TTC lies elsewhere.
If the anger about the TTC strike is directed at the workers or even at Chow we are in trouble. The union, the rest of the labour movement and the left has to channel this frustration in a different direction.
The CEO of the TTC, Rick Leary, should be the target of this frustration. He is advancing the privatization agenda and playing hardball with the workers. Likewise Doug Ford should wear some of the responsibility for the strike. The TTC is systemically underfunded. Its degraded service is the direct result of the lack of funding from the province. Ford is spending a billion dollars of public money to advance the privitization of liquor and beer sales that will undermine the 2.2 billion dollars of revenue that LCBO takes in for public services. There is clearly money in the provincial budget to accommodate workers’ demands and then some.
A political strike
A TTC strike will instantly pose a number of political questions. Will other workers support the strikers or will they demand government action to end the strike? Will the government feel confident or reticent about using its legislative powers to end the strike? Will the public blame workers, management, Mayor Chow or Premier Ford for the TTC shutdown? The strike won’t be resolved in the confines of the workplace, rather it will be resolved at the political level. And it will happen quickly. The TTC strikes in 2008, 2006 (which was a wildcat strike) and 1999 all lasted two days or less. The 1991 strike lasted eight days.
For workers and riders, much is at stake. If workers are able to win, it would result in better service for riders and blunt management’s privatization agenda. A safe and reliable public transit system is possible when workers have the power to defend our public transit system. A win for workers would also put Ford on the back foot in his fight with the LCBO workers and maybe even cause him to rethink his plans to call a snap election.
If the strike is defeated, it could not only accelerate privatization and cuts at the TTC, but it could embolden Doug Ford and his big business agenda. LCBO workers are conducting a strike vote soon. This fight could shape how confident those workers are to fight back.
Building solidarity
The TTC strike could very well define not only the strikes that come after this in the province, but the political landscape upon which we fight. Lenin once wrote “politics begins where millions of men and women are; where there are not thousands, but millions, that is where serious politics begin.” For millions of people in the GTA, if TTC workers strike, that strike will be the political question.
With only days to go before a possible strike, it is incumbent upon the labour movement and the broader left to move heaven and earth to build solidarity for TTC workers. This means talking to your coworkers about the issues, putting up a solidarity poster, participating in TTCriders canvasses, attending the big joint TTC Riders and Justice for Workers meeting on Tuesday evening. It also means asking our own unions to communicate the issues to its members before the strike and to give people avenues to express solidarity.
Making solidarity with the TTC workers easy, visible and everywhere will be key to helping the TTC workers win. And a win for TTC workers is a win for riders and workers across the province. We should take to heart the lesson of the education workers’ strike, when the working class is united, we can win.
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