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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Libyan forces continue with crackdown on dissentAP VideoPublished Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011 11:06AM ESTLibyan forces were reportedly cracking down on anti-government protesters in the capital overnight, while elsewhere in the Middle East demonstrations were continuing in Bahrain and Yemen.0 commentsEmailTweetPrintDecrease text sizeIncrease text size
The most gripping, intoxicating drama on TV right now is the revolution.
Yes, the general revolution, not just the events in the Arab world. Thing is, watching TV you get to see and feel how everything might fit together, loosely and unfiltered. What television news does is illuminate the principle of the instability of meaning. When events are fluid, attunement to everything is necessary. What is bewildering is bewitching because television allows us to derive our own meaningful iconography from the images and events. The shape of the meaning shifts endlessly.
