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Transit workers in Canada’s largest city face losing the right to strike as the province moves decisively toward declaring their work an essential service.
The McGuinty government will introduce legislation on Tuesday, banning Toronto Transit Commission workers from walking off the job.
The proposed bill, which will receive first reading in the legislature on Tuesday afternoon, follows a request by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford to ban transit workers from striking. In December, city council voted 28-17 in favour of making future strike action by transit union members illegal.
“We have received a proposal from Toronto city council. We have listened to them. We have talked to representatives of the workers as well and of course we have heard from many Torontonians,” Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters on Tuesday morning, shortly before the legislature begins its spring session. “Whatever we do, it’s all about helping the people of Toronto, ensuring that their needs are being met.”
More than 100,000 Torontonians rely on public transit to get around the city every day, so when workers walk off the job, as they did briefly in 2008, commuters are left stranded and the economy loses an estimated $50-million a day.
Time is of the essence in introducing the legislation. The first of three collective agreements with unionized transit workers expires on March 31. Union leaders have promised not to strike during the upcoming round of talks for a new agreement.
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