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Striking Transit Workers Fail in Bid to Have Cease-Desist Order Quashed

Posted on: Monday, 29 May 2006, 15:00 CDT

By GREG BONNELL

TORONTO (CP) - Ontario's premier urged thousands of striking transit workers to get back to work Monday afternoon hours after subways, buses and street cars came to an unexpected halt as a result of a labour dispute.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said the transit workers were breaking the law and called on them to respect their collective agreement.

McGuinty said he was not prepared to consider declaring transit an essential service "in the heat of the moment."

Hundreds of thousands of commuters in Canada's largest city were shocked Monday morning when they awoke to discover the city's massive transit system out of operation during the busy morning rush.

Temperatures rose to at least 30 C by early afternoon and the city was forced to issue a heat alert as many jostled for taxis, walked or hopped on their bikes to get to work.

Ontario's Labour Relations Board declared the sudden strike by Toronto Transit Commission workers illegal and issued a cease-desist order demanding they return to work immediately.

It reinforced the order later Monday afternoon after the union asked it to reconsider. The board also warned workers of the consequences of ignoring the order to get back to work.

Bob Kinnear, president of the 8,500-member local of the Amalgamated Transit Union, insisted workers had been locked out.

Talks to end the dispute and get the transit system rolling in time for the afternoon commute began, but by late morning the transit chief said time was running out for officials to restore service the same day.

"We're almost at the point of no return," said Rick Ducharme, the commission's general manager, adding that officials needed a clear directive from the union to allow them to prepare for the afternoon rush hour.

Kinnear issued a statement saying the union made an offer that would have ended the illegal walkout but management turned it down. The offer involved changes to a scheduling system the union says would make some cleaners and maintenance crews work permanent nights.

Ducharme said he would seek an injunction from the courts if workers continued to stay off the job, but that course of action could take days.

About 800,000 people use Toronto's network of buses, street cars and underground subway cars every day.

Only seven buses were operating Monday morning during the busy morning rush hour, where normally 1,300 would be in service. Subway and street-car service was halted entirely.

The first Toronto transit strike since 1999 caught most commuters off-guard. Many said they went to bed Sunday unaware an illegal strike was possible and some said they felt betrayed by the transit system they support daily.

"I saw people on the street waiting for streetcars, they just had no clue that this was happening, said lawyer Liz Kiss as she walked among the thousands of other workers making their way into Toronto's financial district.

"It came out of the blue."

While the hour-long walk from the city's west end didn't present undue hardship for Monika Walasek and her sister Ivanna, the women said a little advance notice would have been appreciated.

"We just wouldn't mind knowing Sunday night about the whole dispute. People feel a bit cheated," said Monika, who works at a major bank.

"All of a sudden you wake up and there's a lock out. Well, one side says there is a lock out, the other side says there's no lock out. Somebody's lying."

Ann Curryer was one of those transit commuters who found herself waiting for a streetcar that wasn't coming.

"I actually asked a girl, 'how did I miss this?' because I had no idea that it was happening," said the 31-year old legal assistant.

"I was a little annoyed at first, but when I started walked I relaxed."

At bus stops throughout the city morning commuters stood in groups talking. Others were on cellular telephones trying to beg a ride from neighbours or co-workers.

The union-management battle had been brewing for months on several issues including the safety of drivers allegedly attacked while trying to make some commuters pay their fares. Health premiums, job evaluations and the move to make cleaning crews and employees who maintain the tracks switch from days to nights.

But Ducharme said transit officials were as shocked as commuters were to find service had been put to a stop.

"We knew there would be some job issues related to maintenance, janitors maybe not reporting for the night shift," he said.

"Nobody expected the whole system to go down. This is very dramatic."

Small clusters of maintenance workers gathered before sunrise at an east-end transit yard. They shouted at managers trying to persuade them to return to work.

Kinnear said the transit commission's management locked transit gates.

"They locked the gates and indicated that there would be no service long before our operators had an opportunity to report to work," he said.

But Ducharme called the lock-out claim absurd.

"There was no lockout because at no time did management step in to stop any service," he said.

"To say that's a lockout is totally absurd."

Workers staged a two-day transit strike in 1999 and, in 1991, an eight-day strike ended with back-to-work legislation.

Source: Canadian Press

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