TTC union prez Bob Kinnear is a pretty slick guy. He knows when it’s time to pick a fight. And now’s not one of them.
He understands that the public is a little pissed with TTC workers these days. And so Kinnear extended what looked like an olive branch at a press conference at the Sheraton Thursday.
He announced that the transit union would not strike if contract talks with the city, set to begin February 7, start going sideways and it just so happens that the two sides can’t come to an agreement before the current deal expires March 31.
Instead, Kinnear says, the union will submit unresolved issues to binding arbitration.
In other words, the union will act as if essential service legislation banning strikes, something asked for by City Council of the province back in December, is in place.
Chances are essential service legislation won’t be passed before the union’s current contract expires. The Leg doesn’t meet until February 22. Shortly after that there’s a March break.
But the union is freaked out by the prospect the province is poised to push the law through anyway, Kinnear suggesting there’s huge pressure behind the scenes to do just that.
Some of that sense of urgency is coming from the Libs’ friends at the Star. The paper urged the province to act quickly to bring in the law in a January 25 editorial. That brought a sharp rebuke from CUPE Ontario head Fred Hahn. Hahn argued that stripping TTC workers of their right to strike is a “quick fix that ignores the real problem with transit in Toronto,” namely, funding. True enough.
It’s also true that less than one-third of one per cent of the TTC’s total operating time has been affected by work stoppages over the last 35 years. But Ford and co is not in the business of letting the facts get in the way of a bad idea.
While agreeing not to strike may appear good PR for the Amalgamated Transit Union, the fact of the matter is, Kinnear’s olive branch is more an attempt to buy time. The ATU has little choice.
An arbitrated settlement may not necessarily be a bad thing for the union – at least, for this round of bargaining. The ATU may win a better deal through arbitration than it can from the crew in charge at City Hall.
But the last thing the union wants is to lose its right to strike. Arbitrated settlements don’t necessarily mean monetary gains for the union in future contract talks. That was made clear by Kinnear in an automated message sent to union members last week.
What if, for example, the Tories end up in power come October? Any arbitrator a Hudak government may appoint to settle future disputes between the transit union and city may not be so labour-friendly.
The best Kinnear can hope for is to convince the province, while the Libs are still in power, to at least have a debate on the issue.
The hope is that enough pressure can be brought to bear – Kinnear hinted at a Charter challenge – to force Queen’s Park to maybe reconsider. There’s little chance of going back once an essential service law is enacted. It’s unlikely that even an NDP government would risk the public’s wrath and repeal it.
Promising not to strike during this round of bargaining may buy breathing room for the ATU, but time’s running out.
