Joe J. - Blog

Chaos in Toronto - Subway stations shut, buses and streetcars parked in garages!

May 29th, 2006

This morning hundreds of thousand of Torontonians were stuck on subway and bus stations. Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) confirmed that 700,000 people couldn’t get to work following “an illegal job action” by transit workers. They also mentioned that on one particular line where normally there would be 1,300 buses, only seven buses were operating before 8 a.m. The Ontario Labour Board has quickly issued a ‘cease and desist’ order to all subway…, bus and TTC labour workers and ordering them to return to work, but it isn’t clear if that will end the labour dispute.

Problem for many people was that the strike simply wasn’t announced and it caught people unprepared. Mayor of Toronto David Miller and the province’s labour minister apparently knew about the issue and was trying to resolve it over the weekend, but both sides could not arrange the meeting Monday to try to resolve the issues and now is simply too late. D. Miller left a message to all TTC worker: “If you don’t show up to work, you would be breaking the law,” he said.

TTC union and management of the safety of workers confirmed that many TTC workers been assaulted when trying to make transit riders pay their fares. So, if you assumed, this was all about the money, you’d be quite wrong. This strike is a protection sought, where TTC employees want protection in the form of plastic shields and video cameras, and are angry the transit commission hasn’t acted on the request. Not even after the threats of a strike.

You can read more about the strike here: Toronto Star , Toronto Sun or Reuters Canada

Entry Filed under: English Blog