Transit Workers’ Readiness to Strike Won Gains
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 members voted on their collective agreement with Toronto Transit Commission management on June 18, 2024. 8,153 of approximately 12,000 employees cast a ballot -- about a thousand less than voted for a strike mandate a month earlier. This time, 6,555 indicated that they favour the deal, with 1,538 against and 60 abstentions.
Negotiated on June 7, the settlement was reached four hours past the strike deadline after a ‘framework’ settlement was reached at around 11:30 p.m. on June 6. It followed a union announcement that there would be a strike action. Contract negotiations started in February 2024. The previously arbitrated terms expired in April. The new deal appears to be an overall improvement over anything ATU-113 has seen in decades, but it contains some concessions.
Substantially, the contract brings vehicle cleaner maintenance workers back into ATU113 as well as escalator and elevator trade positions that had previously been contracted out. It also includes language that protects workers from being contracted out in the near future, against creating part-time jobs, and if property resources are sold off the jobs have to be protected in any deal. It also restricts cross-boundary operations to the four that come into the city, and it retains the six TTC lines that go beyond Toronto boundaries.
It is a 3-year deal with a 4.79%/4.25%/4% increase for each year respectively. There are increases to shift premiums for operators and increases to some clothing allowances, mainly for maintenance. There are some benefit improvements, as well as expansion of types of care covered. There is an increase to operator breaktime payout, as well as pensioner payouts. There is no increase in disability coverage. Dry cleaning vouchers will be
discontinued. Someone mentioned a lump sum being offered in its place, but there seems to be no mention of it in the contract summary.
There is language to have ATU maintenance and trade staff to train on most operations technology, across the TTC. A change to trade workers’ opportunities to move up, and laterally, has seemingly become more flexible. Workers now only have to get a sick note after the first 5 days off sick. A position where operators and maintenance workers could bid on shifts that involved driving and maintenance, will be eliminated at the end of this year, thus limiting trained workers to their sector of work. The pool to select single day vacation blocks will be expanded slightly. There has been some removal of disciplinary action that can be taken against operators. Collectors are being merged into Customer Service Agents at seniority-based positions which will result in a partial change of responsibilities. The CSAs will, to some extent, be used as a feeder pool for operations.
It is unclear how this collective agreement will function in years to come. Wage gains today appear to exceed the rate of inflation, but ATU suffered the imposition of arbitrated terms which often favoured the employer during high inflation years. The Ontario provincial government, under Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, supported by Doug and Rob Ford when they were on Toronto City Council, removed transit workers’ right to strike in 2011. The Ontario Superior Court declared the anti-strike law unconstitutional, restoring ATU 113’s right to strike in 2023. Operators were ready to take job action to close the wage gap and demonstrate their autonomy and social importance. After months of management threatening job security, service cuts, real wage cuts, they arrived at the eleventh hour with a framework that the union negotiation team accepted. It was a real opportunity missed to take job action until employees have a signed deal that respects the work we do and wins us more power in our
workplace. It would have also given many new workers and veterans who have not seen a strike in over a decade much valuable experience when it comes to organising a strike. It would have demonstrated the raw relationship between employers and workers, as well as the great potential power workers can deploy. The momentum was defused by the willingness to compromise to avoid a job action. Unknown is what we would have gained or lost -- had we walked out.
Local 113 was prepared, with support from the international union, from the domestic labour movement, and allies – not to mention the willingness of transit workers, whose mass action was imminent. It might have led to more trying circumstances, but it would have also been of great value to the members and the labour movement. Its impact on the city would have been considerable, and that’s the point. Organised workers can realise the value they create, not just materially, but in the quality of their work environment and their control over it. The resolute, militant character of the ATU Local 113 membership deserves the credit for the gains made. The more workers and communities organise and come together, the more that can be achieved. The militant spirit evident in the strike vote is indispensable, because workers everywhere have been losing ground for a long time. We should realize that nothing has ever been gained without struggle and solidarity.
(The above article was written by a TTC worker who is a member of Socialist Action.)