By Carl Bronski - 9 May 2008, wsws.org

Toronto’s Mayor David Miller has referred to the city’s Executive Committee a motion that would designate the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) an essential service. Such a designation would invite action by the provincial government to strip transit workers of the legal right to strike or to so restrict job action as to make it a token gesture.

The call to restrict the right to strike, put forth by two Toronto city councillors, follows closely on the heels of a day-and-a-half walkout by 9,000 transit workers organized in Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU).

That job action began on the night of Friday, April 25, after workers overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement recommended by a thin majority of the union’s executive committee. The strike was abruptly ended the following Sunday afternoon when Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty marshalled the unanimous support of the opposition Conservative and New Democratic parties to force the workers back into the subway and bus barns and impose binding arbitration in the contract dispute.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/can-a28.shtml

Toronto Transit workers forced back to work by strike-breaking law

By Carl Bronski
28 April 2008

A thirty-six hour strike by the nine thousand members of Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Workers union ended abruptly Sunday afternoon, when the trade union-backed New Democratic Party joined with the other two parties in the Ontario legislature to unanimously pass an emergency back-to-work order.

The legislation, initiated by Liberal provincial Premier Dalton McGuinty, calls for the appointment of a labour arbitrator to decide outstanding issues in the dispute between the union and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The order also threatened a two thousand dollar per day fine for any transit worker defying the law and a twenty-five thousand dollar per day penalty for the union should it resist the order.

Just as they did with the garbage strike in Toronto in 2002, Howard Hampton and the other New Democratic Party members of the assembly wholeheartedly supported the Liberals and Conservatives in their rush to crush the strike. The legislation was also heralded by Toronto Mayor David Miller, a Clintonesque politician who has received support from the unofficial NDP group in city council, even whilst overseeing a fifteen year tax plan that is geared toward massively redistributing wealth in the city from tenants and homeowners to big commercial interests.

Disclaimer - This article is being reposted here for informational purposes. It's author doesn't necessarily support the aims of this website and its members.

Brent Jang - Globe and Mail Update, May 12, 2007 at 4:33 PM EDT.

The union leader of maintenance workers at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said Saturday that 3,200 employees could go on strike late Tuesday night.

William Brehl, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference's Maintenance of Way Employees Division, said management and the union remain far apart on wages, working conditions and benefits.

CPR said last Tuesday that it has contingency plans to keep freight moving, starting by deferring expansion projects and other capital spending that currently employs 2,000 workers. That would leave Calgary-based CPR to assign more than 1,300 managers to fill in for 1,200 employees on day-to-day maintenance duties.

The Teamsters' members have been working without a contract since Dec. 31, 2006. The federal government appointed mediator Bill Lewis on April 26 to help resolve the dispute, but talks broke off on April 28. No new talks are scheduled.

Disclaimer - This article is being reposted here for informational purposes. It's author doesn't necessarily support the aims of this website and its members.

By Brent Jang - reportonbusiness.com, May 10, 2007

Maintenance workers at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. are fuming after chief executive officer Fred Green unveiled strike contingency plans, union leader William Brehl said yesterday. Mr. Brehl said Teamsters employees aren't impressed by Mr. Green's plan, in the event of a strike, to keep freight moving by having managers fill in for unionized workers. "Quite candidly, we can run the railway without this group," Mr. Green said Tuesday. "We would rather not do that, but we will if we need to and we'll do it for as long as we have to, to make our point." Mr. Green is disrespecting important workers who build and maintain tracks, Mr. Brehl said. CP (TSX) fell 29 cents to $72.71.