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It's official....
Transit Talks
Tune up your bike, plan your carpool group, or pull out your walking shoes because transit workers are going on strike, local union president Bob Kinnear said Friday.
"It is ...with the deepest regret that I have to announce that we will be withdrawing our services as of Monday morning," Kinnear said.
The union’s demands for increased wages and pension contributions and leniency in scheduling weren’t met and on Monday morning it looks as though its members will be walking off the job. The transit workers rejected a new $160 million contract offer they called “inadequate.”
Kinnear said wage issues aren’t the only stumbling blocks. He expressed concern about a lack of funding from the government that’s had a big impact on the maintenance of Toronto’s buses, subways and streetcars.
“For more than a decade, our wages have not kept pace with the cost of living,” he said. “Our members in maintenance are asked to work miracles with an aging fleet of vehicles. Our operators have to stay alert every single second under incredible pressures to meet precise schedules.”
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, which represents more than 8, 000 employees, had warned that if a deal wasn’t reached by noon Friday, members would walk off the job Monday morning, leaving about 1.3 million people who rely on the T.T.C. in the lurch.
Howard Moscoe, the T.T.C. chair, said he was surprised by the union’s move.
“At this point in time, don't understand what the union wants,” he explained.
The T.T.C. now has the weekend to think over its actions, Kinnear said, but he still refuses to accept any offers or sit at the bargaining table over the weekend. The union has accused the T.T.C. of moving too slowly on key issues.
In March it rejected the T.T.C.’s offer of a two per cent wage hike in the first three years of a five-year agreement. The union’s contract expired on April I.
Damn those greedy TTC mofos, they officially go on strike as of Monday and who knows how long this will last. Like millions of other Torontoians who rely on the TTC to get to and from work, we're all gonna be scrambling to get to work on Monday. I can either borrow my moms car and take it to work and pay like $6/day for parking or fucking take a GO bus from Bramalea City Centre to York Mills and then walk 20mins to Yonge and Eglinton. Man either way I'm gonna be spending over 50 bucks next week just to get to work and back.
Damn the TTC, they can all go to hell.
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