On the One-Month Anniversary of the YRT Strike
As of today it has been a full month since the buses stopped running in York Region. Little progress has been made toward a resolution in this time. However, there have been two important events in the last day.
The ATU Pickets the Riders, Again
This morning (as I write this, in fact) union members are staging a huge
picket line at Finch Station in Toronto, a busy terminal that serves as a transfer point for riders commuting to or from the Region. I imagine it is pure chaos down there.
The union claims the action is motivated in part by comments from York Region MPP Frank Klees regarding a lack of picketing. Ray Doyle, president of ATU Local 1587, is upfront about the union’s intention and the impact the picketing will have on riders:
We have generally avoided inconveniencing the travelling public with picket lines but that strategy seems to annoy Mr. Klees. No problem. We will correct that.
This sounds very petty to me. Also, the union’s last picket disrupted riders’ morning commute as well, causing delays of up to an hour or more. That is (by my reckoning) two of four such actions by the union that’s wound up punishing riders, making me question Mr. Doyle’s assertion it has generally avoided
that type of behaviour.
Supposedly the picketing today is also meant to protest the refusal of the private bus contractors to end the strike immediately
by agreeing to binding arbitration—the oft-repeated and disingenuous claim I wrote about on Monday. Naturally the union is silent on how it, too, has so far refused to end the strike. I particularly like this quote from Bob Kinnear, president of ATU Local 113:
It’s mysterious why not a single York Region politician is in favour of voluntary arbitration, which would end the strike,says Kinnear.
Readers of my blog might not find this quite so mysterious.
If you saw the picket line at Finch Station today, please post a comment below and tell us what the scene was like.
Meanwhile, in the Provincial Legislature
Many riders got their wish yesterday when back-to-work legislation was introduced in parliament by MPP Peter Shurman, one of the three Conservative York Region MPPs who promised this legislation some time ago. A transcript of the bill’s introduction is in the hansard.
Debate on the bill is scheduled for this afternoon, sometime after 1:00. You’ll be able to watch the proceedings live on the Web.
People have speculated on the likelihood of this bill passing and what purpose it might actually serve. The Liberal Labour Minister has said she will not support the bill, and while the Liberals have only a minority government the Conservatives do not have enough seats to pass the bill on their own. To do this they’d need cooperation from the NDP, and back-to-work legislation is not something I would normally expect that party to support.
The bill seems so unlikely to pass it’s tempting to view the whole thing as a public-relations stunt on the Conservatives’ part. Back-to-work legislation normally results in just the kind of binding arbitration the union wants and from which it is likely to benefit. This seems like an odd thing for Conservative politicians to support, but perhaps they are doing so precisely because they are confident the bill has no hope of passing. By simply introducing it, they will have won goodwill from their constituents and possibly dulled the roar of riders accusing politicians of doing nothing.
We’ll see what happens this afternoon but I expect the bill will die a quick death, followed by Conservatives capitalizing on the opportunity to lash out at the Liberals over their apparent failure to take action for Region residents.
Hi, Simon. I saw that picket line all right! I was annoyed to observe a mass of picketers blocking the Finch station driveway and delaying each departing YRT bus for at least several minutes. I’m guessing the held-up passengers were fuming. I normally board at Finch Station, but I decided to avoid the scene and get on at the first stop after Finch instead; in retrospect, this wasn’t the best approach as I had to wait 15 minutes in the cold and get on a crowded vehicle.
The picketers didn’t appear to be blocking passengers–just the vehicles themselves. Some security was present–and there were MANY news-outlet vans, meaning we can expect to see plenty of media coverage about the picketing.
I missed my connecting YRT bus and got to work about 20 to 25 minutes later than usual. Thanks, union, for raising my stress levels this morning and dampening any sympathies I may have had for transit workers’ concerns.
@Tracy: Thanks for the field report.
I’m not sure if you’re trying to imply I’m overreaching by saying the union is “picketing the riders,” but regardless I’m standing by that language. When picketers slow down the buses, the only real effect is to inconvenience the riders. If the union intended to picket the contractors it would be outside their corporate buildings instead. And of course, I think the quote from Ray Doyle above makes the union’s intentions perfectly clear.
I do get the sense the tide of public sentiment is turning more generally against the union, which apparently tends to happen naturally as a strike drags on anyway. I wonder what its next move will be.
Hi, Simon. I was concerned early yesterday morning (before I got to the scene) that the picketers might be trying to block individual passengers from boarding buses–but saw they weren’t doing that; that’s what I meant in the first sentence in my second paragraph. Yes, their actions seemed aimed directly at riders.
@Tracy: Ah, I gotcha.