Essential Service Time

Regardless of how you feel about the TTC or unions in general it is undeniable that the TTC is, and should be declared, an essential service. When Bob Kinnear called the strike at 11:10 on Friday night he said it was to prevent exposing union members to "the dangers of assaults from angry and irrational members of the public". That the public likely would have been angry and irrational is a demonstration of how essential the TTC is.

I talked to several people over the weekend and today who were in danger of losing jobs, were unable to obtain groceries, were unable to obtain prescriptions etc., If the strike had lasted into the week, and had not been called off by the Provincial Legislature, there were alot of people who's children wouldn't have been able to go to school, people who would have missed medical appointments and again people who definitely would have lost their jobs.

What's more the TTC doesn't just affect transit riders. The absence of the TTC means more cars on the road - causing more pollution and slowing everyone down, it means a drop-off in business for many areas of the city and lost revenue for the owners of those business as well as for employees.

In a city where the cost of driving (+ gas, parking and insurance) is prohibitive for many and where people are generally encouraged to find alternate forms of transportation shutting down the TTC is, for many, the equivalent of shutting down all the roads. The union's leaders cannot even claim that they are standing up for working people. By calling this strike the hurt the livelihoods of many of the working poor and that damage would have been far worse if the province had not intervened.

I am all for the workers of the TTC getting a fair deal. I believe though that the time has come when, if they cannot get that deal at a negotiating table, they will have to try and get it from a judge in arbitration. The city of Toronto simply cannot be held hostage to the demands of one side or the other nor is it acceptable that the poor, working poor, children, university students and the elderly simply be written off as collateral damage.

The TTC has alot of work to do. They have to find ways to cut costs while expanding capacity and service. They certainly have to start taking complaints from the public seriously (which they currently do not) but first things being first the City of Toronto and the Province of Ontario must declare the TTC an essential service - on part with police, fire and ambulance services and assure the public that there will never be another strike.