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Councillors move to make TTC essential service
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/521065
it's about time!
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Councillors move to make TTC essential service
Oct 21, 2008 10:12 AM
John Spears
Staff Reporter
A trio of city councillors kicked off a campaign this morning at Queen subway station,asking transit riders to help them get the Toronto Transit Commission declared an essential service.
The councillors and their staff handed out thousands of petitions asking them to go online at www.cesarpalacio.com, and sign an online petition to put the TTC on the same legal footing as police, fire and ambulance services.
That would make strikes illegal, and refer bargaining disputes to binding arbitration.
The councillors plan to hand out flyers at selected stations throughout the rest of the week.
Most riders took the yellow flyers and carried them off to work, although a few balked.
"People are essential, not the TTC," snapped one woman, handing the flyer back.
But others were prepared to listen.
John Thompson, a downtown office worker, said he's in favour of declaring the TTC an essential service.
"I think there would still be wildcat strikes, but I there it would be less likely to have a strike in the first place," Thompson said.
He'll consider signing. He takes the TTC to work every day: "I never would drive downtown."
During one of the wildcat strrikes, he ended up walking more than six kilometres to work.
Others were curious about the issue.
"I do take the subway every day. I'm definitely going to go online and check it out," said Navneet Lakhan of Woodbridge, who uses both Viva and TTC to get downtown.
She said she hasn't formed an opinion yet on whether declaring the TTC an essential service is a good thing or not.
"I have no idea," she said. "I'll be very honest. I'd like to go through more information before making a decision."
But the flyer piqued her interest, she said, because "without the TTC I'd have no idea how I'm going to get down here every day."
Councillors Cesar Palacio, Cliff Jenkins and Michael Thompson are behind the campaign.
They hope to get the issue debated at next week's council meeting.
Palacio said in an interview that TTC strikes cost the city $50 million a day in lost revenue and productivity.
The immediate goal is to raise awareness of the issue, he said.
Even if they're not successful in winning a vote at the next council meeting, the councillors plan to keep pushing and if necessary make it an issue in th 2010 municicpal election, he said:
"We will continue to do this as long as it takes, because this is an issue that's not going to die."
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