[psa] TTC on strike as of midnight...

[misskitty_79]

When I got on the streetcar to work this evening, my driver informed me that I shouldn't stay out late, since they were going on strike.

Confirmation can be found in the following links:

• Google news search;
• ATU Local 113's press release

Updated @ 01h20: Mayor David Miller says TTC workers will be ordered back to work:

• Unacceptable and irresponsible;
• We've got people downtown tonight who might have relied on public transit. How are they going to get home?

Updated again @ 10h10: Sunday legislation possible:

• TTC back by Monday? (good article, though I'm not sure where/why the sports tie-in occurred)

Comments

Re: Money for Buildings and equpment is different than salaries

[gashin.livejournal.com]

Hi Peter,

What forms the basis of the TTC's operating budget, in that case? Is it primarily funded by the city, and the city is no longer providing adequate supplementation to fare prices/etc. to meet the standard of employment the union holds the TTC to, or is it something else?

Private sector does not need to have that cutthroat mentality; that's partially why unions were created in the first place. Coming from Quebec (ah, the legacy of the Quiet Revolution), perhaps I hold unions dearer than a giver other, average citizen, but even working for a well-established financial corporation, my lack of union is somewhat unsettling to me. They are what keep corporations accountable to their workers. Unless I'm willing and able to dig up all BMO's financial records for the last year, I can't actually challenge them on their supposed inability to provide all employees in the Prairies district with raises that would put OUR salaries on par with those of other financial corporations, as they pledge they always will (and even if I COULD dig up those records, who would I challenge?)-- a union would do that for me. Frankly, the fact that there is not more across-the-board unionizing in this country is an eternal source of bafflement to me.

And that answers your question: where there are unions, there are jobs that actually pay enough to let people live reasonable lives, not panicking about where their next grocery trip or electricity bill is going to get funding from. That is where you find your widely-available $40K/yr jobs-- instead of a few $150K/yr jobs and tons and tons of $23K/yr jobs. The idea of a union is to provide the same (acceptable) quality of life for as many people working for a corporation as possible, be they drivers or ticket-collectors or janitors or whatever else. Everybody in this country deserves a $40K/yr salary, and the corporations in this country could afford it. But they don't, because they rather keep their profits and pay richly a few individuals at the top. And nobody holds them accountable.

/soapbox