Feature Story: Is TTC an Essential Service?

Photo by, Maryam Musharaf Shah

             It’s 7:30 on a Monday morning; the hustle and bustle of the morning rush has begun. Newspaper stands are half empty. There’s not a seat on the subway, let alone standing room. Hundreds of people are packed like a can of sardines in each subway car; shoulder to shoulder, back to back trying to get to work or school in time…

            The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) system is the country’s largest public transit system providing service to over 1.3 million people a day in Toronto. The TTC moves the people of Toronto, and it is vital to the economy; many Torontonians rely on it to get through their day-to-day lives.

            With labour negotiations set to begin in February, commuters could face yet another strike as early as April 1. Many transit riders are looking at Mayor elect Rob Ford to protect them from the kind of chaos that erupted in 2008, when transit workers abruptly went on strike. But it seems other city councillors are already taking action.

            According to the Toronto Star last week, councillor Cesar Palacio of Ward 17 announced that he plans to reintroduce a motion to make the TTC an essential service before the current TTC labour contract expires early next year.

             “I feel very confident the motion will pass,” he said earlier this week with an interview from the Star.

            Palacio’s executive assistant, Mike Foderick said that he and his team feel extremely optimistic that the motion to making the TTC an essential service will surely pass this time because it is something that they have been hearing and other councillors have been hearing loud and clear from the people at the doors during the election.

            After long debates, the Toronto city council rejected a proposal in 2008 to ask Queen’s Park to allow the TTC to be an essential service. The vote turned out being a tight one with 23 to 22 against the motion. The results left many councillors and commuters in shock; some disappointed, and some relieved. If the TTC were made an essential service, it would result in employees not having the right to legally strike, and at the time, Mayor David Miller, the Toronto Transit Commission’s management and the Amalgamated Transit Union defended the current model.

            This time around, “So many people were saying, ‘We don’t want anymore strikes! We don’t need anymore strikes!’” Foderick said. “We have all the stars aligned, politically speaking, and we are all optimistic that we’ll get the support from council. In part because after an election, it’s really fresh in councillors’ minds what the voters want and the majority vote this.”

            According to Foderick, they haven’t engaged the transit workers directly on this topic because they know that they definitely won’t support this.

           

            “If they didn’t support it last time, they won’t support it this time. I would be very surprised if the union reversed their decision on that,” he said.

            Paul W., who is originally from the TTC Malvern Division refused to give his full name but he thinks Foderick is correct about how transit workers feel.

            “Because it's not like we're police or the ambulance because if there's no bus there's taxis, bikes, and people can walk for miles. I'm from the (Caribbean) island and people used to walk for miles.  So when you can walk and you are not stranded then it's not essential. Everything in North America is essential because we're spoiled,” he said loudly, gesturing animatedly with his arms.

            Paul is currently working at the Scarborough Centre RT Station at the ticket booth due to a shoulder he injured on the job.

            “I’m here because I had a surgery on my shoulder so I can’t drive. I’m in physio two times a week and benefits don’t cover enough. Nothing is free so for the last six months I’ve been paying on my own.  The thousand dollars they gave me to cover for my physio is gone!” said Paul, as he rubbed his injured shoulder. “So when the contract comes, I want money towards physio.”

                        With a possible strike to occur in the coming year, Paul explained that, going on strike is a part of his job.

    “As a union it’s your own way to get people to listen when everything else fails. It’s either you strike or for years to come your job is in smoke!” he said.

            While the public might think the people in the TTC union are untouchable and that they make too much money for what they do, Paul insists that it’s not true.

            “Have you ever been spat on? Abused at your job for no apparent reason?” he asked. “One woman in the union is now half deaf because of a rider who was having a bad day and decided to punch her in the ear continuously. So are you saying we have no right to strike for our safety? For our benefits?”

            He understands that the TTC is an essential service to those who are elderly and those who suffer from low income but says the majority of riders have cars and it’s just cheaper to ride transit while they park their cars at stations.

            Overall, the topic of whether TTC is an essential service or not is simply “a conflict of interest” from both sides, concluded Paul.

            Although a recent experience from 2008 has shown that TTC workers now have the right to strike for only two days before they are legislated back to work by Queen’s Park, those days are very expensive and disruptive to many. It can cost the local economy an estimated $50 million a day.

            “I don’t want to generalize but the polls show that those who take the transit are workers and so people can’t go to work, can’t make it to their shifts, and they’ll have to take their vacation days. This causes Toronto a ton of chaos,” Foderick says.

            Vikas Gupta, a student at Centennial College, relies solely on the TTC.

            “I totally depend on TTC for my convenience to school, to my job, and even for my weekend groceries,” he said sitting calmly on the 38 Highland Creek bus heading to school.

            If the motion to make the TTC an essential service fails, and we fall into another strike, Gupta said there would be thousands of students like him who depend on the TTC and who will be left with no alternatives.

            Gupta explained that without the TTC, he couldn’t even imagine himself attending school. He sees the TTC as his “lifeline”.

            For Foderick, wildcat strikes that leave people in limbo are not the right way.

            “Whatever form an essential service takes, whatever reduction takes place, you have to have a provision in there that says 48-hours notice so that people can plan their lives, make arrangements, whatever alternatives they need to do, we have to give them that warning!” insists Foderick, clearly frustrated.

            According to Foderick, he explains that he can only speak on behalf of Torontonian’s perspective and he believes “making the TTC an essential service is the most pro-worker thing you can do because when transit shuts down, it literally grinds the city to a halt.”

            During Rob Ford’s inauguration as Toronto’s new mayor Tuesday, he didn’t mention anything on the topic of a possible TTC strike in the new year. He commented on CP24 that he plans to work with the province to implement his subway plan. When confronted by a reporter on how easy it would possibly be for Toronto’s city council to stop Transit City, Ford reassured Torontonians that “a vote was never needed to implement it (new TTC plans)” so it wouldn’t be necessary to go on strike or for any projects to be scrapped.